Arab News | Relative says all 4 family members aboard plane missing off the Bahamas found dead

MIAMI: All four family members aboard a small plane that went missing off the Bahamas were found dead Tuesday after relatives launched their own search effort, a family member said.

Silvia Larrieu said relatives on boats recovered the bodies.

The plane went missing on Monday after departing Great Harbor Cay, a city in the Berry Islands of the Bahamas, for Miami Executive Airport in Miami-Dade County, according to Bahamas police.

Larrieu said her uncle, Mario Lamar, 80, had more than 40 years of experience as a pilot and routinely flew to the Bahamas, where he had a second home in Great Harbor Cay. The plane was also carrying his wife, Lili, 79, and their grandchildren, Sofi Sosa, 28, and Christian Sosa, 22. They were returning home to Miami from a trip over the long weekend, Larrieu said.

Sofi Sosa had texted her parents in a family chat that they were leaving, and a flight plan her uncle filed showed the time the plane was expected to land, Larrieu said.

The family contacted authorities after seeing messages were not being delivered. Her uncle kept the plane in pristine condition and was very cautious, she said.

“This is awful,” she told The Associated Press in a brief phone interview.

Bahamas police identified the plane as a PA-34 Piper five-seater aircraft, with tail number N212ML. Air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft when it was about 13 miles west of Andros Island, Bahamas police said. The island is roughly 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Miami.

US Coast Guard Lt. Nicolina Converso said a Coast Guard plane was helping with the search again on Tuesday. Authorities in the Bahamas requested the agency’s help around 2 p.m. Monday following a report of a downed airplane.