KINGSTON (Reuters) – Rescuers were searching yesterday for the wreckage of a small US private plane that crashed off the east coast of Jamaica, after the Jamaican military said debris from the aircraft had likely been spotted.
The plane, with an unresponsive pilot, crashed on Friday after veering far off its course to Florida and triggering a US security alert that prompted a fighter jet escort.
“Our pilots are very confident that the sighting is consistent with that of a high impact debris field, and this has since been corroborated by a United States Coast Guard C-130 aircraft involved in the operation,” the Jamaica Defence Force said in a statement on Friday.
Search and recovery teams searched the crash site about 14 miles (22 km) north of the coastal town of Port Antonio.
The crash killed two people aboard the plane: Larry Glazer, a real-estate executive from Rochester, New York; and his wife, Jane Glazer. It is not yet known if anyone else was on the plane.
The pilot stopped responding to radio calls about an hour after take-off from Greater Rochester International Airport and was headed to Naples Municipal Airport in Florida, the US Federal Aviation Administration reported.
