A PLANE carrying an 80-year-old pilot, his wife and their two grandchildren has disappeared without a trace in the Bahamas.
Bahamian and US forces have launched a frantic search to find pilot Mario Lamar, 80, his wife Lili Lamar, 79, and two of their grandchildren, Sofia Sosa, 28, and Christian Sosa, 22.
Their Florida family are begging for all the help they can get to find their loved ones who vanished on the flight from Great Harbour Cay to Miami.
The family had spent Labor Day weekend at their home on Great Harbour Cay before Mario flew them home on a small private plane, the Miami Herald reported.
Mario and Lili’s niece Silvia Larrieu said: “They’ve spent their whole life going there. That’s like their second home.”
The PA-34 Piper plane disappeared from the radar after its speed rapidly fluctuated and its altitude took a sudden drop, FlightAware data suggests.
In the space of just three minutes, it dropped from 10,000ft to 3,700ft.
Authorities received a report that a PA-34 Piper aircraft flying to Opa-locka had plunged into the water 13miles west of Andros Island at 2.20pm on Monday, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said.
Niece Silvia said in a video statement: “I ask anybody out there, if you can help with search and rescue efforts, we would greatly appreciate it.
“We need to bring them home.”
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The plane passed through rough weather, she said, which hampered authorities efforts to search for the wreckage.
The U.S. Coast Guard said it was assisting the Royal Bahamas Defence Force “following a report of a downed aircraft with four souls onboard approx 15 mi off Andros Island”.
It added that a Coast Guard “HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane is supporting the search”, which is ongoing.
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