Mystery shrouds the crash of a private plane carrying a prominent upstate New York couple who were taken on a ghostly 2,735km journey after apparently becoming incapacitated at the controls before slamming into the water off Jamaica.
The wreckage of the high-performance plane carrying Rochester real-estate developer Laurence Glazer and his entrepreneur wife, Jane — both experienced and enthusiastic pilots — had not been found late on Friday, hours after US fighter pilots launched to shadow the unresponsive aircraft observed the pilot slumped over and its windows frosting over.
The plane’s pilot had indicated there was a problem and twice asked to descend to a lower altitude before permission was granted by an air traffic controller, according to a recording of the radio conversation. Radio contact with the plane was lost a short time later.
As darkness fell, Jamaican Coast Guard Commander Antonette Wemyss-Gorman said search operations would be suspended and resumed at first light yesterday.
A US cutter was expected to arrive in the area and join the search, US Coast Guard Petty Officer Sabrina Laberdesque said.
The single-engine turboprop Socata TBM700 took off at 8:45am from the Greater Rochester International Airport in New York en route to Naples, Florida. Air traffic controllers were last able to contact the pilot at 10am, the US Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The agency said it had not confirmed the number of people aboard.
On a recording made by LiveATC, a Web site that monitors and posts air traffic control audio recordings, the pilot can be heard saying: “We need to descend down to about 18,000 feet [5,480m]. We have an indication that’s not correct in the plane.”
A controller replied, “Stand by.”
After a pause, the controller told the pilot to fly at 7,620m.
“We need to get lower,” the pilot responded.
“Working on that,” the controller said.
Controllers then cleared the plane to descend to 6,090m, a command the pilot acknowledged.
A couple of minutes later, a controller radioed the plane by its tail number: “900 Kilo November, if you hear this transmission, identify yourself.”
There was no response.
At 10:40am, two F-16 jets were scrambled from a US National Guard base in South Carolina to investigate, according to a statement by the US North American Aerospace Defense Command. Those jets handed off monitoring duties at about 11:30am to two F-15 fighters from the US Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida.
The fighter jets followed the plane until it reached Cuban airspace, when they peeled off, said Preston Schlachter, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Northern Command.
On a LiveATC recording, the fighter pilots can be heard discussing the Socata pilot’s condition.
“I can see his chest rising and falling right before I left,” one said. “It was the first time we could see that he was actually breathing. It may be a deal where, depending on how fast they meet them, he may regain consciousness once the aircraft starts descending for fuel.”
The pilot was speculating that the Socata pilot was suffering from hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation, but Schlachter said the US Air Force does not know for certain that was the case.
Rick Glazer said that his parents were both licensed pilots. He said he could not confirm that they were killed, adding “we know so little.”
Numerous public officials offered their condolences for a couple described as a linchpin in efforts to rejuvenate an upstate New York city stung by the decline of corporate giants Kodak, Bausch and Lomb, and Xerox.
“They cannot be replaced,” said New York Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy, a former Rochester mayor.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in