Search continues for missing Bermuda to Boston flight as crews plan to comb seabed

A search for a missing air ambulance carrying six people continued off the Massachusetts coast on Sunday, as authorities planned to search the seabed, the US Coast Guard announced. The Federal Aviation Administration contacted the Coast Guard at 2am on Saturday, reporting loss of contact with the Gulfstream G100 over the Atlantic Ocean.

The aircraft, a Gulfstream G100, had departed from Bermuda's L.F. Wade International Airport with four Canadians and two Bermudian nationals on board, bound for Boston, Massachusetts. Searchers had identified a debris field off the coast of Nantucket on Saturday, and since then, Coast Guard crews, along with the New York National Guard's Air Rescue Wing and Massachusetts authorities, had been searching an area of 7,356 square kilometers (2,840 square miles).

The depth of the water around the debris field was between 24 to 27 meters (80ft to 90ft). The Coast Guard is now deploying sonar to search the seabed. No survivors were expected to be found, according to Coast Guard Captain John McTamney, chief of response for the northeast district. The plane had four crew members and two passengers aboard when it departed Bermuda's airport for a nighttime flight to Massachusetts.

Air traffic audio suggests the plane may have been "coming in blind" as a storm approached, and the pilot reported electrical issues before declaring an emergency. The plane descended sharply from 24,000ft to 10,000ft shortly before it disappeared, according to preliminary data from FlightRadar24. This sudden descent and the plane's loss of navigation in a stormy area have led aviation lawyer Mary Schiavo to speculate that the crew may have lost their navigational instruments, making it difficult to control the aircraft. Transport Canada is closely monitoring and supporting the search and rescue efforts.