MIAMI , A Miami family is pleading for help finding four relatives whose small plane vanished Monday morning on a flight from the Bahamas to South Florida.
The passengers were identified by family as pilot Mario Lamar, 80, his wife Lili Lamar, 79, and two of their grandchildren, 28-year-old Sofia Sosa and 22-year-old Christian Sosa. They had spent the Labor Day weekend at the family’s longtime getaway on Great Harbour Cay and were heading home when the aircraft disappeared from radar.
The Piper PA-34 Seneca, a six-seat plane, was last tracked around 11 a.m., according to FlightAware data. The flight path shows the plane’s speed shifting rapidly up and down before its altitude dropped from roughly 10,000 feet to 3,700 feet in three minutes. The route looped in a circle before data cut off.
The U.S. Coast Guard is working with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force to search for the downed aircraft. As of 5 p.m. Monday, the Defence Force said in a statement that its search had “yielded negative results.”
Niece Silvia Larrieu said the family first grew worried when the group chat went quiet. Sofia had texted to let everyone know they were flying home, the last message the family received from her.
They’ve spent their whole life going there. That’s like their second home. They were coming home.
Larrieu said Mario, a well-trained pilot with years of experience, kept the plane in “pristine” shape and had all required safety gear on board. The plane’s recorded path crosses rough weather near the north end of Andros Island, where the search is centered, and Larrieu said that weather delayed Bahamian crews from launching immediately.
The Lamars’ son has already flown to Andros to rent a boat and help look for his family.
Please help. I ask anybody out there, if you can help with search and rescue efforts, we would greatly appreciate it. We need to bring them home.
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