U.S. Coast Guard releases names of crew, passengers aboard missing Hamilton-based air ambulance

The U.S. Coast Guard has released the names of all six people on board a missing Hamilton-based air ambulance plane that went down off the coast of Massachusetts on the weekend.

A news release late Monday named four Canadian crew members employed by medical transport company Latitude Air Ambulance and two Bermudian residents.

The Gulfstream G100 was flying from Bermuda to Boston with a patient and a family member when it lost contact with air-traffic control early Saturday.

The Canadians have been identified as captain Philip Gregory Childerhose, first officer Thomas Henry Farquhar, flight nurse Sarah Jane Paton and respiratory therapist Jolene Beth Weir.

Marilyn Lavonne Bean and her son Sergio Wayne Lottimore were identified as the Bermudian locals.

The pilot reported electrical problems and declared an emergency as the plane approached the U.S. coast.

READ MORE: ‘Heartbreaking reality’: Six aboard missing Hamilton-based air ambulance presumed dead

Preliminary flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 shows that the aircraft rapidly descended from a cruising altitude of about 24,000 feet to around 10,000 feet.

The coast guard said debris from the plane was recovered 32 kilometres off Nantucket. The initial search ended Sunday and covered over 7,000 kilometres of ocean, from on the water and in the air.

Officials said Monday a civilian vessel also found remnants of the plane.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has taken over the investigation and has sent crews to Massachusetts to help search for and recover the rest of the plane.

“We are grateful to the crews and partner agencies who quickly responded to this incident, and we will continue to support our Canadian partners as they conduct their investigation,” said Rear Adm. Matthew Lake from the U.S. Coast Guard.

“Finding the air craft, locating the flight data recorder … the black box if you will, we’re hoping a lot of the information that we will require to determine exactly what happened and why, will be found in that equipment,” said Craig Johnston of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.