KINGSTON, (Reuters) – A small U.S. private plane with an unresponsive pilot crashed off the east coast of Jamaica yesterday after veering far off its course toward southwest Florida and triggering a U.S. security alert that prompted a fighter jet escort.
A New York county official said that Larry Glazer, a real-estate executive from Rochester in New York, and his wife, Jane Glazer, were aboard the plane. Both were killed, the official said.
It was not yet known if anyone else was on the plane. Search and rescue teams, including a military plane and a helicopter, were despatched to the crash site about 14 miles (22 km) north of the tourist town of Port Antonio, Jamaica’s Civil Aviation Authority said.
The U.S. Coast Guard also joined the search with an HC-130 Hercules airplane and a helicopter, as well as a Coast Guard Cutter en route.
“At this time we have not located the aircraft or debris,” a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said late on Friday afternoon.
The pilot stopped responding to radio calls about an hour after take-off from Greater Rochester International Airport in New York and was headed to Naples Municipal Airport in Florida, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said.
