The Coast Guard on Sunday suspended the search for a civilian airplane that disappeared about 110 miles east of Charleston on Thursday.
In an update emailed to Navy Times, Coast Guard 7th District officials said that they had spent 76 hours canvassing 3,516 square miles before calling off the hunt for the missing Piper PA-31 aircraft.
“It is with a heavy heart that we suspend our search for the missing aircraft and its five passengers,” said Capt. John Reed, the commander of Sector Charleston. “I have spoken with the family of those that were on this plane and extend my deepest sympathies to them and all those who have been hit by this tragic loss at sea.”
The names of the missing passengers have not been released.
Authorities say that the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center alerted 7th District watchstanders at 11:33 a.m. Thursday that the Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center had received a report of an in-flight emergency shortly before radar contact with the plane was lost.
The plane had left the Robert F. Swinnie airport in Georgetown County on Thursday morning, bound for the Bahamas.
The Coast Guard deployed an HC-130 Hercules long-range overwater surveillance aircraft and an MH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter from Air Station Elizabeth City and the cutters Hamilton and Nathan Bruckenthal.
They were joined by the commercial chemical tanker Seabulk Challenge and a Navy P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft, officials said.
The Coast Guard had better news to report in Florida.
On Sunday, a Coast Guard Station Miami Beach 33-foot Special Purpose Craft—Law Enforcement crew rescued a 59-year-old man from the water near Fisher Island.
Coast Guard Sector Miami watchstanders monitoring VHF-FM radio channel 16 at around 2:50 p.m. were told by the wife of Lindsey Schult that he had fallen off his vessel and was drifting south, according to a release sent to Navy Times.
The Coast Guard rescue team arrived 15 minutes later and returned the uninjured man to his vessel.
