The Tribune

A PRIVATE plane with an unresponsive pilot travelled more than 1,400 miles over the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast of the United States and over the Bahamas before crashing off the coast of Jamaica yesterday, with a fighter-jet escort unable to render aid.

The plane took off from the Greater Rochester International Airport heading to Naples, Florida, according to local officials, and air traffic controllers were last able to contact the pilot at 10am, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

Two F15 fighter jets were scrambled at 11.30am and followed the plane until it reached Cuban airspace, when they peeled off, said Preston Schlachter, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defence Command & US Northern Command.

The plane apparently ran out of fuel and crashed 40 miles off the Jamaican coast just after 2pm.

A prominent American real estate developer and his wife, Larry and Jane Glazer, were aboard the plane and their son, Rick, said yesterday that his parents were both licensed pilots. He could not confirm they were killed, saying, “we know so little.”