{"id":22733,"date":"2019-02-01T04:51:56","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T04:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/02\/01\/with-debris-spotted-in-the-water-coast-guard-officials-suspend-search-for-missing-plane\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:23:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:23:38","slug":"with-debris-spotted-in-the-water-coast-guard-officials-suspend-search-for-missing-plane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/02\/01\/with-debris-spotted-in-the-water-coast-guard-officials-suspend-search-for-missing-plane\/","title":{"rendered":"With debris spotted in the water, Coast Guard officials suspend search for missing plane"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Coast Guard has stopped searching for an overdue medical aircraft the disappeared near the Alaskan village of Kake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before halting the search at 5:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, Coast Guard crews in the air and on the sea had spent 63 hours combing an area that sprawled across 240 square nautical miles of the Alexander Archipelago<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, Alaska Wildlife Troopers spotted aircraft debris near the south tip of Admiralty Island in the Chatham Strait<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coast Guard officials said that it appears to be wreckage from the twin-engine Guardian King Air 200 medical flight that was due to land at the village of Kake at 6:19 p.m. Tuesday but never made it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials said no other aircraft debris has been located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuspending a search for any reason is one of the most difficult decisions we have to make,\u201d said Capt. Stephen White, Sector Juneau\u2019s commander, in a statement emailed to Navy Times. \u201cThis was an extensive search effort in some very challenging conditions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of the Coast Guard announcement, Randy Lyman, Senior Vice President of Operations for Guardian Flight, issued a statement thanking the armed forces, state agencies and local citizens who joined the search for the lost plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the formal search and rescue effort has been discontinued and we recognize the gravity of the situation, we will continue efforts to recover our friends in order to hopefully reunite them with their beloved families,\u201d Lyman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur hearts are heavy, and we respectfully offer our deepest thoughts and prayers to our lost employees and their families. We will miss pilot Patrick Coyle, flight nurse Stacie Rae Morse, and flight paramedic Margaret Langston. This tragedy is dreadful for everyone as they were our friends and neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lyman grounded Guardian Flight\u2019s fleet of aircraft on Wednesday morning and vowed to cooperate with probes launched by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration into the cause of the mishap.<\/p>\n\n\n\t