Plane carrying American family of 4 goes missing

A plane carrying four members of an American family went missing while flying from the Bahamas to Florida, prompting authorities to launch a search.

The five-seat PA-34 Piper departed Great Harbour Cay on Monday for Opa-locka, Florida, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said. Air traffic control later lost contact with the aircraft about 13 miles (21 km) west of Andros Island, the Bahamas’ largest island.

“On the flight this morning was my uncle Mario Lamar, his wife Lili Lamar and two of his grandchildren, Christian Sosa and Sofi Sosa,” Silvi Larrieu, a family member, told CNN.

Police were alerted after receiving a report that “an aircraft may have gone down in the waters off Red Bays,” a settlement on northwestern Andros Island.

Flight-tracking site FlightRadar24 showed the aircraft, tail number N212ML, apparently circling off the Bahamian coast before vanishing from radar. Heavy thunderstorms were reported in the area at the time, although it remains unclear if weather contributed to the incident.

The US Coast Guard said it was helping the Royal Bahamas Defense Force search about 15 miles (24 km) off Andros Island and had deployed an HC-144 Ocean Sentry surveillance aircraft.

An initial search was delayed by bad weather but was expected to resume when conditions improved.

Police said, “Efforts to locate the aircraft and its occupants remain a priority.”