KINGSTON, Jamaica — Mystery shrouds the crash of a private plane carrying a prominent upstate New York couple who were taken on a ghostly 1,700-mile journey after apparently becoming incapacitated at the controls before slamming into the waters off Jamaica. The wreckage of the high-performance plane carrying Rochester real estate developer Laurence Glazer and his entrepreneur wife, Jane — both experienced and enthusiastic pilots — had not been found late Friday, hours after US fighter pilots launched to shadow the unresponsive aircraft observed the pilot slumped over and its windows frosting over.
The plane's pilot had indicated there was a problem and twice asked to descend to a lower altitude before permission was granted by an air traffic controller, according to a recording of the radio conversation. Radio contact with the plane was lost a short time later.
As dark fell, Jamaica Coast Guard Commander Antonette Wemyss-Gorman said search operations would be suspended and resumed at first light Saturday. A US Coast Guard cutter is expected to arrive in the area late Friday and join the search at first light, said Petty Officer Sabrina Laberdesque.
Rick Glazer said that his parents were both licensed pilots. He said he could not confirm they were killed, adding that “we know so little.”
But numerous public officials offered their condolences for a couple described as a linchpin in efforts to rejuvenate an upstate New York city stung by the decline of corporate giants Kodak, Bausch & Lomb and Xerox.
The single-engine turboprop Socata TBM700 took off at 8:45 a.m. from the Greater Rochester International Airport in New York en route to Naples, Florida. Air traffic controllers were last able to contact the pilot at 10 a.m., the US Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The agency said it had not confirmed the number of people aboard.
On a recording made by LiveATC, a website that monitors and posts air traffic control audio recordings, the pilot can be heard saying, “We need to descend down to about (18,000 feet). We have an indication that's not correct in the plane.” A controller replied, “Stand by.”
After a pause, the controller told the pilot to fly at 25,000 feet. “We need to get lower,” the pilot responded. “Working on that,” the controller said.
Controllers then cleared the plane to descend to 20,000 feet, a command which the pilot acknowledged. A couple minutes later, a controller radioed the plane by its tail number: “900 Kilo November, if you hear this transmission, ident” — identify yourself. There was no response.
At 10:40 a.m., two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from a National Guard base in South Carolina to investigate, according to a statement by the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Those jets handed off monitoring duties around 11:30 a.m. to two F-15 fighters from Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida.
The fighter jets followed the plane until it reached Cuban airspace, when they peeled off, said Preston Schlachter, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command & US Northern Command.
On a LiveATC recording, the fighter pilots can be heard discussing the Socata pilot's condition.
The pilot was speculating that the Socata pilot was suffering from hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation, but Schlachter said the Air Force doesn't know for certain that was the case.
National Transportation Safety Board officials were in contact authorities in Jamaica but had not made a decision as of late Friday whether to investigate the incident, board spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. — AP
