The United States Coast Guard officially suspended its search on Sunday for six people aboard a medical transport jet that crashed off the coast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. The Gulfstream G100 aircraft, operating as Latitude Air Ambulance flight Heartbeat 104, went down in the Atlantic Ocean while en route from Bermuda to Boston Logan International Airport.
Rescue teams called off the active search-and-rescue operation after covering 4,445 miles over approximately 66 hours by air and sea. Officials confirmed that debris recovered from waters approximately 20 miles south of Nantucket originated from the missing aircraft. The water in the debris field is roughly 80 to 90 feet deep.
Flight Details and Emergency Response
The incident began early Saturday morning, October 3, 2026. The aircraft had flown to L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda to collect a patient, departing for Boston at approximately 12:41 a.m. local time.
While approaching the U.S. East Coast, the flight crew reported electrical problems and declared an emergency. Air traffic control recordings captured communication difficulties as the plane made a rapid descent from a cruising altitude of about 24,000 feet down to approximately 11,000 feet within three minutes. Radio and radar contact were subsequently lost.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a search-and-rescue alert at around 1:20 a.m. on Saturday, notifying the Coast Guard shortly before 2:00 a.m.
Personnel Aboard and Company Statement
According to Clarence Togeretz, director of flight operations at Canada-based Latitude Air Ambulance, the aircraft carried six people:
- Two Canadian pilots
- Two Canadian medical staff members
- One Bermudian patient
- One Bermudian family member accompanying the patient
In a statement released on Sunday, Latitude Air Ambulance acknowledged the tragic outcome. “Given the information shared by authorities and the conclusion of the search-and-rescue phase, we must now face the heartbreaking reality that the four members of our Latitude team, our patient and the patient’s family, who were aboard Heartbeat 104, are presumed to have died,” the company stated.
Rear Admiral Matthew Lake, commander of the Coast Guard’s Northeast District, expressed condolences during a Sunday news conference. “Suspending a search is not an easy decision,” Lake said, while thanking the numerous partner agencies involved in the exhaustive operation.
Participating Agencies and Next Steps
The extensive multi-agency search utilized a wide array of maritime and aviation resources, including:
- Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod (HC-144 Ocean Sentry, HC-130 Hercules, and MH-60 Jayhawk aircraft)
- Coast Guard Station Brant Point (47-foot Motor Lifeboats)
- The Coast Guard Cutter William Sparling, a Boston-based Fast Response Cutter
- The New York Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing (two HH-60W helicopters and an MC-130J Super Hercules)
- Local Nantucket police and harbormaster shoreline patrols
With the active rescue phase concluded, operations are transitioning toward recovery and investigation. U.S. and Canadian authorities, including the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), are expected to examine the aircraft’s maintenance records, reported electrical failures, final flight path, and weather conditions to determine the precise cause of the crash.
