A Gulfstream aircraft carrying six people vanished off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, early Saturday after losing contact while flying from Bermuda to Boston, prompting the U.S. Coast Guard to launch an immediate air and surface search for the missing plane.
The Coast Guard said the Federal Aviation Administration lost contact with the aircraft, according to a social media post from the agency, as reported by WCVB. Crews were dispatched to search the waters off Nantucket after the plane disappeared en route to Boston, and the station says it will provide more information as it becomes available. As of now, the fate of the six people aboard remains unknown.
The oceanic route between Bermuda and Boston is a well-traveled private aviation corridor. The flight path between Bermuda's L.F. Wade International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport covers roughly 670 to 683 nautical miles, a trip that typically takes about two hours on a midsize or heavy private jet, according to charter distance data from pereJets. That corridor brings aircraft flying north from Bermuda directly over the open ocean approach into New England, passing near Nantucket before reaching landfall on Cape Cod.
Cape Cod Crews Lead the Hunt
Responsibility for the search falls to U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod, based at Joint Base Cape Cod in Sandwich, Massachusetts. The facility is the only Coast Guard aviation unit in the northeastern United States and serves as the primary military aviation command for maritime search and rescue across roughly 2,000 miles of coastline stretching from New Jersey to the Canadian border, per the U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area.
The station maintains 24-hour emergency response capability using Sikorsky MH-60T Jayhawk helicopters, which conduct direct ocean rescues and hoists, alongside twin-engine EADS HC-144 Ocean Sentry turboprop planes equipped with maritime search radar and air-droppable survival gear for medium-range surveillance, the Atlantic Area notes. Those crews are trained to launch within 30 minutes of a distress call, and the unit handles an average of 250 search and rescue cases each year, saving an estimated 58 lives annually in New England waters, according to military reporting by Boston 25 News.
Jurisdiction over the incident could shift depending on what searchers find. Under a formal memorandum of understanding between the two agencies, the National Transportation Safety Board leads civil aviation accident investigations once wreckage or evidence is located, while the Coast Guard retains primary operational authority over the maritime search itself, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The FAA notified the Coast Guard after losing contact with the aircraft.
Waters With a History of Difficult Searches
The waters off Nantucket have seen major search-and-recovery operations before. In October 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed into the Atlantic roughly 60 miles south of Nantucket, killing all 217 people aboard the Boeing 767 and triggering a multi-agency effort led by the Coast Guard and NTSB, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Less than a year earlier, in July 1999, a Piper Saratoga piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. crashed into the Atlantic seven miles off Martha's Vineyard.
Conditions in the search area add another layer of difficulty. NOAA nautical charts show the waters surrounding Nantucket are marked by complex shoals and shifting currents, requiring crews to navigate specific coordinates as strong tides rapidly move floating debris across the search zone, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Exact weather and ocean conditions at the moment the Gulfstream lost contact have not been disclosed.
As of Saturday morning, the identities of the six people aboard, the aircraft's tail number, and the cause of the lost contact had not been released. WCVB said it would update its reporting as more details emerge from the ongoing search.
