Chilling story of how a medical plane carrying 6 people vanished after pilot reported electrical trouble

• The pilot reported electrical problems and declared an emergency as the aircraft approached Massachusetts.

• The plane descended from about 24,000 feet to roughly 11,000 feet before radio and radar contact were lost.

• A debris field linked to the aircraft was found off Nantucket, but the six people aboard remain unaccounted for.

Six people were on their way from Bermuda to Boston on a medical evacuation flight when a routine journey suddenly turned into a desperate search over the Atlantic.

The Canadian-registered Gulfstream G100 was approaching Massachusetts early Saturday when its pilot reported electrical problems, declared an emergency and appeared to tell air traffic control that the aircraft was “coming in blind”.

Minutes later, the plane had plunged thousands of feet, lost both radio and radar contact and disappeared.

By Saturday evening, the US Coast Guard had found a debris field linked to the aircraft off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The six people on board — four Canadians and two Bermudian nationals — remained unaccounted for as the search continued.

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The aircraft, operated by Ontario-based Latitude Air Ambulance, had left L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda at about 11:41 pm on Friday for the roughly 800-mile flight to Boston Logan International Airport.

It was carrying four crew members — two pilots and two medical personnel — as well as a Bermudian patient and a family member accompanying the patient, according to the company.

For most of the journey, nothing appeared unusual. The Gulfstream was flying at about 24,000 feet before the situation changed as it approached the US coast.

Air traffic control recordings provide a disturbing glimpse into what happened next.

As the aircraft experienced electrical problems, the pilot declared an emergency. A controller, apparently struggling to hear the crew clearly, asked, "Roger, you said you're coming in blind. Is that what you said?” The pilot's response was not audible in the recording.

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The controller then asked whether the aircraft was declaring an emergency and attempted to establish contact with the crew. Other aircraft in the area were also asked whether they could see the Gulfstream on their anti-collision systems or communicate with it. They could not.

Flight-tracking data cited by the Boston Globe showed that after cruising at around 24,000 feet, the aircraft descended by about 13,000 feet in roughly three minutes. It was around 80 miles south of Nantucket when a dispatcher at Boston Logan was told that the aircraft had lost “radio and radar” contact.

The plane was expected to land at Logan about 15 minutes later but never arrived. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a search-and-rescue alert at about 1:20 am, and the Coast Guard was notified around 2 am. Boats, aircraft and helicopters were sent to search the waters south of Nantucket.

As the hours passed, the search area expanded across hundreds of square miles of Atlantic Ocean. Then rescuers found debris.

The Coast Guard confirmed that the debris field belonged to the missing aircraft, but the discovery did not end the search for the six people aboard. The agency said its crews would continue searching the water, with the cutter William Sparling remaining in the area overnight.

The search has also moved towards the seabed, with authorities preparing to use sonar to examine the ocean floor.

The cause of the incident remains unknown. Investigators have not established that the electrical problems caused the aircraft to crash, and authorities have not confirmed what happened during the final minutes of the flight.

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Aviation attorney and former US Transportation Department inspector general Mary Schiavo said the aircraft's sudden descent and the storm visible along its route raised the possibility that the crew may have lost critical instruments.

“Something bad happened with this big drop, and they flew into this big storm,” Schiavo said. “It's a terrible place to have a loss of your instruments and be flying blind.”

She explained that losing reliable instruments in such conditions could cause a pilot to become disoriented and struggle to know whether the aircraft was turning, climbing or descending.

Bermuda Premier David Burt said the government was in contact with the families of the two Bermudian passengers and the authorities leading the search.

“We are praying that all six people will be found safe,” Burt said.

Transport Canada is also working with US authorities, while the National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering information about the incident.