Mystery shrouds prominent US couple’s crash off Jamaica

KINGSTON (Jamaica) – Mystery shrouds the crash of a private plane carrying a prominent upstate New York couple who were taken on a ghostly 2,700km 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 yesterday (Sept 5), hours after United States 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 today. A US Coast Guard cutter was expected to arrive in the area late yesterdayy and join the search at first light, said Petty Officer Sabrina Laberdesque.

Mr 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.

“They cannot be replaced,” said Lt Gov Robert Duffy, a former Rochester mayor.

Senator Charles Schumer called the crash “a massive and heartbreaking loss for this community”.

“It deeply saddens me that Rochester has now lost two of its most indomitable, industrious visionaries,” Mr Schumer said.

Mr Laurence Glazer co-founded Buckingham Properties and served as its chief executive and managing partner, working alongside two sons. In a July interview with Rochester’s City Newspaper, he described optimism for Rochester.

“My vision starts with the idea that downtown can come back and it will be vibrant,” he told the newspaper, which said Buckingham Properties controls nearly 13 million square feet of real estate space.

A sign taped to the company’s door yesterday said it was closed. Model airplanes could be seen lining an interior windowpane in a darkened office. Mr Laurence Glazer had been president of the TBM Owners and Pilots Association and active on the boards of numerous civic organisations.

“Larry spends some of his spare time on the ground – gardening around his house with his wife, Jane; and some in the sky – flying his plane,” a biography on the company website said.

Ms Jane Glazer started QCI Direct, a business that now employs 100 workers, the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper reported. The company, which produces two national retail catalogs selling household and other products, made Rochester’s Top 100 list of fastest growing privately held companies last year, according to its website.

“The Glazers were innovative and generous people who were committed to revitalising downtown Rochester and making the city they loved a better place for all,” Govenor Andrew Cuomo said.

The single-engine turboprop Socata TBM700 took off at 8.45am 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 10am, 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 10.40am, 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 11.30am 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 Mr 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.

“I can see his chest rising and falling right before I left,” one said.

“It was the first time we could see that he was actually breathing. It may be a deal where, depending on how fast they meet them, he may regain consciousness once the aircraft starts descending for fuel ..” the fighter pilot said.

The pilot was speculating that the Socata pilot was suffering from hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation, but Mr 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 yesterday whether to investigate the incident, board spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said.

Major Basil Jarrett of the Jamaican Defense Force said the plane went down about 22km north-east of the coastal town of Port Antonio and the military dispatched two aircraft and a dive team.

“An oil slick indicating where the aircraft may have gone down has been spotted in the area where we suspect the crash took place,” Major Jarrett.

The crash was the second in less than a week in which a private pilot has become unresponsive during a flight. Last Saturday, a pilot lost consciousness and his plane drifted into restricted airspace over the nation’s capital. Fighter jets were also launched in that case and stayed with the small aircraft until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the Atlantic.

Cases of pilots becoming unresponsive while their planes wander the sky are unusual, with probably not much more than a handful of such incidents over the last decade, said aviation safety expert John Goglia. Sometimes the incidents are due to a pilot becoming incapacitated by a heart attack or stroke, but more often the problem is insufficient cabin pressurisation that causes the pilot and any passengers to pass out, he said.

In 1999, the pilots of a Learjet carrying professional golfer Payne Stewart from Orlando, Florida, to Texas became unresponsive. The plane took a turn and wandered all the way to South Dakota before running out of fuel and crashing into a field west of Aberdeen. Stewart and five others on board were killed. An NTSB investigation blamed the accident on depressurisation. AP