A plane belonging to a prominent New York real estate developer and his wife crashed in the ocean north of Jamaica after flying unresponsive for hours and being escorted by U.S. fighter jets, according to federal officials.
The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for the wreckage, as are a Jamaican military helicopter and search-and-rescue team.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled two F-16 fighter jets from South Carolina at 10:40 a.m. to intercept the Socata TBM-900 headed from Rochester, N.Y., to Naples, Fla. Those planes handed off the escort to two F-15 fighters from Florida at 11:30 a.m.
Military pilots weren't able to communicate with the plane's occupants, but saw that the plane's windows were frosted, according to Army Maj. Beth Smith, a NORAD spokeswoman.
The single-engine turbo-prop is registered to Rochester developer Larry Glazer.
Authorities have not confirmed who was on the plane. But within minutes of the crash, New York officials offered public condolences to the Glazer family.
"I join the residents of Rochester during this difficult week in mourning the loss of Larry and Jane Glazer in today's tragic plane crash," said Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "The Glazers were innovative and generous people who were committed to revitalizing downtown Rochester and making the city they loved a better place for all."
FlightAware identified the plane's tail number as N900KN. FAA records show the plane, a model that sells new for $3.5 million in its standard version, is owned by a company based at the same address as a real estate firm in Rochester. The firm, Buckingham Properties, is owned by developer Larry Glazer, who also is president of the TBM Owners and Pilots Association.
Glazer's son Rick Glazer told The Associated Press: "I don't have any comment about what's going on at this time."
According to Buckingham's website, "Larry spends some of his spare time on the ground - gardening around his house with his wife, Jane; and some in the sky - flying his plane."
Joseph Rowley Jr., director of leasing and marketing at Buckingham Properties, which is owned by Glazer, declined to comment. The company closed early Friday.
A woman answering the phone at QCI Direct, a catalog company owned by Glazer's wife, Jane Glazer, at 2:15 p.m., said the company was not making any public statements.
Moments later, a voice recording at QCI said the company was closed.
The plane took off at 8:26 a.m. and was scheduled to land in Naples about noon, according to FlightAware.com, a flight-tracking service. The plane crashed at 2:15 p.m., about 14 miles off the coast of Port Antonio, Jamaica, according to NORAD.
The military routinely responds to unknown aviation activity, with heightened security after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. But the incidents are often accidents rather than terrorist incidents.
Two F-16 fighter jets followed a general-aviation plane Monday that had taken off from Waukesha Airport in Wisconsin and was on its way to Manassas Airport in Virginia, before it crashed in the Atlantic.
Plane occupants occasionally die of hypoxia for lack of oxygen at higher altitudes.
A prominent example was golfer Payne Stewart, who died in October 1999 as a passenger in a Learjet that lost cabin pressure on a flight from Florida to Texas. Tracked by an F-16, the jet coasted for hours until crashing in South Dakota.
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