4 found dead after Miami family’s small plane goes missing off Bahamas

Miami — Four bodies were found Tuesday after a small plane carrying members of a Miami family went missing off the Bahamas, authorities in the Bahamas said Tuesday. 

The plane took off from Great Harbour Cay at about 10:12 a.m. Monday and was heading to Miami Executive Airport in Miami-Dade County, Bahamas police said in a statement. The plane’s last-known contact was at 11:04 a.m. near the western side of Andros Island, according to a statement from the family.

“Police on the island of Andros are coordinating efforts to locate an aircraft believed to have crash-landed off the coast of Red Bays, North Andros,” Bahamas police said.

The bodies were found on Tuesday, the Royal Bahamas Defense Force said.

The people on board were identified by a relative 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 were returning home to Miami from a trip over the long weekend, said Silvia Larrieu, Mario and Lili’s niece. Sofi Sosa had texted her parents in a family chat that they were leaving, and a flight plan her uncle filed showed the time the plane was expected to land, Larrieu said.

The family contacted authorities after seeing messages were not being delivered. 

Mario Lamar has over 40 years of flying experience, kept the plane in pristine condition and was very cautious, Larrieu said.

“This is awful,” she told The Associated Press in a brief phone interview.

One of the bodies was found by a relative out searching by boat, Larrieu said.

Bahamas police identified the plane as a PA-34 Piper five-seater aircraft, with tail number N212ML. It said it departed Great Harbour Cay, a city in the Berry Islands of the Bahamas.

Air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft when it was about 13 miles west of Andros Island, Bahamas police said.

Bahamian officials contacted the U.S. Coast Guard at about 2 p.m. and requested assistance finding a downed plane, a spokesperson said.

“Southeast District command center watchstanders coordinated the launch of an HC-144 Ocean Sentry to assist Bahamian authorities with the search,” the spokesperson said.