A Latitude air ambulance with six people vanishes off Nantucket on the way from Bermuda

A Latitude Air Ambulance Gulfstream G100 with six people on board left Bermuda for Boston late on Friday and dropped off radar over the Atlantic before it could reach Logan. The US Coast Guard was still searching off Nantucket on Saturday morning.

Ciara Eve, a spokesperson for L.F. Wade International Airport, said the aircraft departed at 11:41 p.m. with four crew and two passengers. It was due at Boston Logan International Airport at about 1:30 a.m. local time. Massport Fire Rescue had staged to meet it. Jennifer Mehigan, a Massachusetts Port Authority spokesperson, said the jet did not arrive.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a search-and-rescue alert at about 1:20 a.m. Saturday, spokesman Rick Breitenfeldt said. The New York Times, citing the Coast Guard, put the loss of contact at around 2 a.m. CBS News put the FAA notice closer to 1 a.m. The spread is about an hour, and it matters for the search box: the jet had already been airborne for roughly an hour and three quarters when tracking stopped.

FlightAware data reviewed by CBS showed the Gulfstream falling from about 24,000 feet to 11,000 feet before the signal ended. That is not a normal step-down for a medical transfer into Logan. A controlled descent into the Boston area would usually begin later and farther west. The Coast Guard Northeast District said air and surface units were working the water off Nantucket, with planes, a helicopter and boats in the search.

Clarence Togeretz, a spokesman for Latitude Air Ambulance, confirmed on Saturday that the aircraft was missing and that the company had contacted search-and-rescue and law enforcement. He declined to name the people on board or describe the medical case. Latitude flies medical evacuations and repatriations. Its site lists a fleet of 10 aircraft, including four Gulfstream G100s, typically staffed with a nurse and a respiratory therapist as well as the flight crew. A six-person load on this trip matches a two-pilot crew, two clinicians and two passengers, which is the split Eve gave from the Bermuda end.

The G100, also known as the IAI Astra SPX, is a mid-size business jet used by several air-ambulance operators because it can cross the western Atlantic with a stretcher and a small medical team. Bermuda to Boston is a routine leg for that work. The island has no tertiary trauma capacity for every case, and private ambulance jets move patients to Boston, New York or their home countries. The route crosses open ocean east of Nantucket, outside the range of a quick helicopter pickup if the aircraft is still at cruise altitude when something fails.

Public tracking does not say why the jet descended. A pressurisation problem, an engine failure, a medical emergency in the cockpit, or a controlled attempt to get below weather would all produce a drop of that size. The Coast Guard has not reported debris, an emergency locator beacon, or a mayday. Breitenfeldt said the FAA was coordinating with the Coast Guard to locate the aircraft. Mehigan said the port authority's thoughts were with those on board and their families.

The registration is Canadian, according to the Coast Guard's account of the tail number. Latitude itself has not published a base of operations for this airframe. Air-ambulance firms often register jets in one country and crew them from another, which splits the investigation between the state of registry, the departure airport, and the US search authority. None of those agencies had named a lead investigator by Saturday afternoon.

For families waiting on a medical transfer, the practical fact is narrower than the search map. The jet left Bermuda with a patient or an escort among the two passengers, and it did not land at the hospital city it was headed for. Until the Coast Guard reports a find, the only confirmed numbers are the six people, the 11:41 p.m. departure, the alert at about 1:20 a.m., and the altitude loss from roughly 24,000 feet to 11,000.