Date: October 3, 2026
Reporter: Emilly Jordan
A Hamilton-based air ambulance carrying six people has gone missing off the coast of the United States, prompting a search by the U.S. Coast Guard, authorities said Saturday.
The aircraft, a Canadian-registered Gulfstream G100 operated by Latitude Air Ambulance, was travelling from Bermuda to Boston when air traffic authorities lost contact with it early Saturday morning. The U.S. Coast Guard said air and surface crews had been deployed to search for the aircraft off Nantucket, Massachusetts.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a search-and-rescue alert for the aircraft at about 1:20 a.m. Saturday after losing contact with the plane. The aircraft was expected to arrive at Boston Logan International Airport but did not reach the airport as scheduled.
Latitude Air Ambulance operations manager Clarence Togeretz told The Canadian Press that the aircraft was carrying a patient and a family member, along with two pilots and two medical staff. The four crew members are Canadian, while the two passengers are Bermudian nationals, he said.
Togeretz said the company had been tracking the flight and lost contact with the aircraft at about 1:30 a.m. as it approached Boston. When the aircraft failed to arrive, Latitude contacted the U.S. Coast Guard.
The company was working with authorities and hoping for a safe outcome. Togeretz said this was the first time Latitude Air Ambulance had lost contact with one of its aircraft.
The Coast Guard said the search area was off the coast of Nantucket, an island approximately 150 kilometres southeast of Boston. Search operations involved aircraft and vessels as authorities worked to locate the missing jet.
Flight-tracking information showed the aircraft had previously travelled from Hamilton to Bermuda on Friday before departing L.F. Wade International Airport shortly after midnight for Boston. The aircraft is identified as Gulfstream G100 with registration C-GRJP.
Additional flight-tracking information reported by Global News indicated that the aircraft was flying at approximately 24,000 feet before descending to about 11,000 feet around 1:05 a.m. and subsequently losing contact. These flight-tracking details have not established what caused the aircraft to disappear.
The Boston-bound flight was a medical evacuation mission. Latitude Air Ambulance provides emergency medical transportation and operates Gulfstream G100 aircraft for long-distance medical flights. The company's standard medical crews can include a registered nurse and registered respiratory therapist, with a physician sometimes also travelling on missions.
Ontario's air ambulance service provider Ornge acknowledged the incident in a social media post and said it hoped the aircraft and everyone aboard would be located safely and quickly.
The aircraft's disappearance has prompted concern in Hamilton and among those connected to the medical transport operation. The search is being coordinated by U.S. authorities, with Latitude Air Ambulance also in contact with Transport Canada.
The circumstances surrounding the loss of contact remain unclear. Authorities have not announced a confirmed cause for the incident, and the identities of the six people aboard have not been publicly released.
The U.S. Coast Guard said its search operation remained active off Nantucket as crews worked to locate the Canadian-registered aircraft and determine what happened to those aboard.