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US plane with unresponsive pilot crashes in ocean near Jamaica US plane with unresponsive pilot crashes in ocean near Jamaica
(35 minutes later)
A US plane with an unresponsive pilot has crashed in the ocean, a spokesman for the Jamaican military says. An unresponsive private plane from the US crashed into the ocean north of Jamaica on Friday, officials have confirmed.
The plane went down about 14 miles north east of Port Antonio, according to the Jamaican Defence Force. Having flown for more than 1,400 miles (2,250 km), the plane went down around 14 miles (22 km) northeast of Port Antonio, Major Basil Jarrett of the Jamaican Defense Force said.
The military has sent aircraft to investigate. There is no immediate information about the people on board. The military has sent an aircraft to investigate the incident, he added. Search and rescue teams were on their way to the crash site, Jamaican civil aviation officials said.
The pilot, who was not identified, had filed a flight plan to fly from Rochester to Naples, Florida. Fighter jets were scrambled at 11:30 am and followed the plane until it reached Cuban airspace, when they peeled off, said Preston Schlachter, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command & US Northern Command. FlightAware, an aviation tracking website, showed the plane over the Caribbean south of Cuba at about 2pm. “We can confirm that the plane has gone down,” he said. There was no immediate information about the people on board.
PA The Socata TBM700 had taken off at 8.45am EDT (1:30pm BST) from the Greater Rochester Airport in New York, according to local officials.
Air traffic controllers were last able to contact the pilot at 10am EDT, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement.
The pilot had issued a flight plan with the FAA to fly from Rochester to Naples, Florida. At 11:30am, fighter jets were scrambled and followed the plane until it reached Cuban airspace, when they peeled off, said Preston Schlachter, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command & US Northern Command.
FlightAware, an aviation tracking website, showed the plane over the Caribbean south of Cuba at about 2 pm EDT.
The incident is the second time in less than a week that private pilot has become unresponsive during a flight.
On Saturday, a pilot lost consciousness and his plane drifted into restricted airspace over the nation's capital.
Fighter jets were also launched in that case and stayed with the small aircraft until it ran out of fuel and crashed Saturday into the Atlantic.
Additional reporting by PA