Search for wreckage of runaway plane continues off Jamaican coast

Posted on Friday, 09.05.14

Search for wreckage of runaway plane continues off Jamaican coast
The FAA says the pilot was apparently unconscious as the plane drifted
across Cuban air space before crashing north of Jamaica.
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD AND JACQUELINE CHARLES
MWHITEFIELD@MIAMIHERALD.COM

A small private aircraft flew past its destination of Naples Municipal
Airport with an apparently unconscious pilot at the controls Friday, and
it was tracked by U.S. fighter jets before it crashed off the coast of
Jamaica six hours after take-off.

The tragedy claimed the lives of a prominent Rochester, New York, couple.

Various federal agencies monitored the drama of the unresponsive plane
above the Atlantic and the Caribbean and through the airspace of three
countries. It ended when the Socata TBM700 single-engine turboprop went
down about 14 miles northeast of Port Antonio, Jamaica, at 2:15 p.m.,
according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Maj. Basil Jarrett of the Jamaica Defense Force said two Jamaican
aircraft as well as dive boats were scouring the crash site where water
depth ranges from 4,900 to 6,500 feet. "We have seen an oil slick in the
area that may indicate where the plane has gone down," he said.

A U.S. Coast Guard C-130 also was taking part in the search and the
Coast Guard Cutter Bernard C. Webber was expected to arrive early
Saturday. The Webber and a Coast Guard helicopter will pick up the
search at sunrise.

The Socata was registered to Buckingham Properties, a real estate
development firm owned by developer Larry Glazer, 68, who was
instrumental in the rebirth of downtown Rochester. An experienced pilot,
Glazer was president of the TBM Owners and Pilots Association.

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported that Glazer and his wife,
Jane, 68, were killed in the crash. The Glazers own a million-dollar
home in Naples' Colliers Reserve golfing community. Glazer's company
also has several properties in Florida, including holdings in Lakeland
and Plant City.

The Rochester paper said sources close to the Glazers reported the
couple had planned to spend the weekend in Naples. Jane Glazer, 68, was
the owner of a catalog company, QCI Direct. A statement from Rochester
Mayor Lovely A. Warren called Glazer "the father of downtown
development" and said the city had "lost two heroes."

The light business and utility plane departed from Greater Rochester
International Airport at 8:26 a.m., according to FlightAware, a flight
tracking service. Its flight plan indicated it was headed to Naples, a
beachside community that the Glazers often visited.

FAA air traffic controllers began tracking the Socata through U.S.
airspace after the pilot stopped responding to radio calls about 10 a.m.

Glazer's last communication, which was recorded on LiveATC.net,
indicated that when the plane was over North Carolina, the pilot wanted
to move to a lower altitude. "We need to get lower," he said on the air
traffic control broadcast. The pilot was instructed to call the Atlanta
control tower, which gave him clearance to descend to 20,000 feet and
"maintain."

The communication broke off after that.

When air controllers could no longer get a response from the pilot,
NORAD dispatched two F-16 fighter planes from the McEntire Joint
National Guard Base in South Carolina to investigate at around 10:40 a.m.

"We saw the windows were fogged up, which led us to believe the pilots
were unconscious," said NORAD Capt. Jennifer Stadnyk.

At one point, the plane was cruising along at 25,000 feet. That high
altitude plus the frosted windows could indicate a loss of cabin
pressure, said Brent Bowen, dean of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University College of Aviation in Arizona.

"At that altitude, it's very, very cold. The temperature would be below
freezing," Bowen said. "At that altitude, you are talking about a matter
of a few minutes, three to five minutes of oxygen. It all depends on a
person's physiology."

One of the military pilots tracking the Glazers' plane commented: "I'm
working on an oxygen system problem," according to an audio of the
conversation posted by the Democrat & Chronicle.

The military pilot also commented that he saw the small plane's pilot
breathing. "It may be a deal where depending on how fast they descend,
he may regain consciousness once the aircraft starts to descend for fuel
starvation," he said.

The aircraft, said Bowen, would have been equipped with backup oxygen
masks, but sometimes that doesn't help.

At times, "in these circumstances, if there is a slow and gradual
change, the person becomes groggy and doesn't understand what's
happening to them. They may not think, 'Oh, I may be losing pressure and
I need to get my oxygen mask on.'"

At 11:30 a.m., the F-16 pilots handed off monitoring duties to two F-15
fighters from Homestead Air Reserve Base. They trailed the turboprop as
it drifted over the Atlantic along the east coast of Florida and over
the Bahamas before heading toward Cuba. The fighters broke off when the
plane entered Cuban airspace.

They intended to pick up monitoring duties once the plane re-entered
international airspace, but it crashed shortly after crossing the island
and exiting Cuban territory south of Manzanillo in eastern Cuba.

The Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma reported that the plane
passed very near Pico Turquino, the highest point on the island with an
elevation of 6,746 feet.

Marie Harf, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said the United States
had been in touch with Cuba and the Bahamas because the runaway aircraft
had entered the airspace of both countries. She did not elaborate on how
the countries might have cooperated.

Around noon, the State Department communicated the news about the plane
to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington and Cuba's foreign ministry
was informed by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. The Cubadebate
website, which is friendly to the Cuban government, reported that U.S.
authorities asked for permission to enter Cuban airspace if necessary
and it was given.

"The stricken plane as well as the Coast Guard C-130 crossed through
national territory," Cubadebate said.

FlightAware showed that the plane had slowed and begun to descend at
around 2 p.m.

The FAA said it believed the plane, which has a range of about 1,700
miles, ran out of fuel around that time.

The drifting flight of the Glazers' plane recalled another tragedy in
October 1999 when fighter planes were scrambled to track a Learjet
carrying professional golfer Payne Stewart, winner of 11 PGA tour
events, and four passengers.

After a pressurization failure when the Stewart plane was en route from
Florida to Texas, it drifted across the United States for hours with no
one at the controls. It finally crashed in a pasture in South Dakota
after it ran out of fuel. All aboard died.

Miami Herald Staff Writer Ina Cordle contributed to this report.

Source: Search for wreckage of runaway plane continues off Jamaican
coast - Breaking News - MiamiHerald.com -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/09/05/4329897/unresponsive-mystery-plane-heads.html