A South Florida family is anxiously awaiting answers after a small plane carrying four relatives home from the Bahamas vanished during what should have been a routine return trip.
Mario Lamar, 80, was at the controls of his Piper PA-34 Seneca on Monday morning with his wife, Lili Lamar, 79, and two grandchildren, Sofia Sosa, 28, and Christian Sosa, 22, aboard when the aircraft disappeared from radar, the Miami Herald reports.
The family had spent Labor Day weekend at the Lamars’ home on Great Harbour Cay and was expected to arrive back in Miami on Monday.
“They’ve spent their whole life going there. That’s like their second home,” Silvia Larrieu, the couple’s niece, said.
Larrieu said her uncle was a highly experienced pilot with four decades in the cockpit and was meticulous about maintaining his plane, which she described as being in “pristine” condition and equipped with the required safety gear.
The four family members departed from the airport at Great Harbour Cay at 10:13am when Sofia sent the family group chat a message that they were heading home.
The message was the last time anyone had heard from her. Hours later, texts sent to the 28-year-old’s phone were left unreturned.
Mario Lamar, 80, was piloting his Piper PA-34 Seneca carrying his wife Lili Lamar, 79, back from the Bahamas on Monday when the airplane suddenly disappeared from the radar
Also onboard the aircraft were two of the couple’s grandchildren, Sofia Sosa, 28, and Christian Sosa, 22
The family grew concerned and decided to track Mario’s plane on FlightAware.
Data from the site shows the six-seat aircraft was last caught on radar just before 11am, when its speed rapidly fluctuated and it dropped from an altitude of around 10,000 feet in the air to 3,700 feet in just three minutes.
The plane’s path also showed it looped in a circle before it dropped off the radar over the waters off Red Bays.
FlightAware’s recording of the plane’s partial path toward Miami Executive Airport also shows it crossed rough weather near the north end of Andros Island.
ALSO READ: Massive South Bend Apartment Fire Forces Evacuations
Air Traffic Control also reports it lost contact with the aircraft when it was approximately 13 miles west of Andros Island, which is where authorities are now focusing their search efforts.
But the rough weather conditions briefly blocked Bahamian forces from starting to search for the family.
In a desperate effort, Mario and Lili’s son decided to fly out to the island to grab a boat and aid in the search efforts.
‘Please help,’ Larrieu pleaded in a desperate 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,’ she added.
The Piper PA-34 Seneca (like the one pictured) was last caught on radar at around 11am, when its speed rapidly fluctuated and it dropped from an altitude of around 10,000 feet in the air to 3,700 feet in just three minutes
The family has also asked Bahamian officials, the US Coast Guard and ‘all appropriate local authorities to work together and deploy every available resource to locate the aircraft and its four occupants as quickly as possible.
‘The Lamar and Sosa families are deeply grateful to everyone participating in the search and to those who have reached out with support,’ the family said in a statement to ABC News.
The US Coast Guard has since announced that it is assisting the Royal Bahamas Defence Force in its search for the downed aircraft and had deployed an HC-144 Ocean Sentry plane to aid in the search efforts.
However, at 5pm EDT on Monday the Defence Force said its search has so far ‘yielded negative results.’
In the meantime, Raul E Rivero pleaded on social media for prayers for his cousin, Ralph Sosa, the father of Sofia and Christian.
‘This is difficult news to process being away,’ he lamented. ‘God, please help the rescuers find them safely.’