The bodies of four members of a Florida family have been recovered after their small plane disappeared off the Bahamas while flying home from Great Harbour Cay to South Florida.
The five-seat Piper PA-34 vanished on Monday, 7 September, after air traffic controllers lost contact with it about 13 miles west of Andros Island. Bahamian authorities believed the aircraft had come down in the sea off Red Bays, in North Andros.
The Royal Bahamas Defence Force said the bodies were found on Tuesday. Silvia Larrieu, a relative of those on board, said family members and other civilians searching by boat recovered them from the water.
The victims were identified as 80-year-old pilot Mario Lamar, his 79-year-old wife, Lili, and their grandchildren Sofia Sosa, 28, and Christian Sosa, 22. The family had been returning to Miami after spending the long weekend in the Bahamas.
The aircraft, registered as N212ML, left Great Harbour Cay at about 11.10am bound for Miami Executive Airport in Miami-Dade County. Police received a report at around 2pm that it may have gone down off the coast of Andros.
The US Coast Guard joined the search after a request from Bahamian officials and deployed an HC-144 Ocean Sentry surveillance aircraft. The operation was temporarily disrupted by poor weather.
Ms Larrieu said her uncle had more than 40 years’ flying experience and routinely travelled to the Bahamas, where he had a second home. She said relatives became concerned after messages from the passengers stopped being delivered.
In a statement, the family said the recovery effort had been conducted with the help of relatives and members of the public who responded to their appeal. They said they were working with the US Coast Guard to bring the victims home and asked for privacy as they mourned.
