The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

WRECKAGE and documentation from the plane carrying missing pilot Clayton Patterson Smith was recovered from the seabed off New Providence yesterday by a team of divers that included his own son.

As the desperate search for father-of-three Mr Smith continued, son Clayron, 20, admitted: “It ain’t looking too good.”

But he said the family was still holding out hope of finding him.

Clayron spoke to The Tribune moments after finding broken-up sections of his father’s aircraft.

Video footage showed a group of men diving to salvage pieces of wreckage.

Clayron said he found a flap and the tail of his father’s Piper PA-32 aircraft, registration C6-PAT, about 26 miles off New Providence. The fueselage was not located.

Last night the Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority (AAIA) released a statement saying: “The Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority (AAIA) was advised that shortly after 2pm, Royal Bahamas Defense Force (RBDF) personnel along with local search and rescue teams located and retrieved aircraft components and documentation in the vicinity of the last known coordinates of the missing Piper PA-32 aircraft with Bahamas registration C6-PAT.

“Preliminary assessment of the documentation and aircraft components retrieved so far suggest that they are associated with C6-PAT.”

The statement concluded: “Search efforts remain ongoing to locate the pilot and main wreckage.”

Reflecting on his determination to find his father, Clayron said his father would have done the same for him if their roles were reversed.

“I try, I give it my all. I grew up on the boat - numerous times I done been out at sea and every time he come to find me.”

He described his father as someone residents relied on to help search for people who went missing by plane or boat.

“Now I sure he’d wish he’ll have some people out her looking for him,” he added.

Despite the family's efforts to remain hopeful, Mr Smith acknowledged that the situation was becoming increasingly grim.

Captain Smith, 53, was travelling from Exuma to New Providence on Sunday to collect a passenger and a part for tractor machinery when he disappeared.

He told his family he expected to be gone for a few hours and would return later that night.

However, he lost contact with Air Traffic Control around 3pm after making a distress call approximately 30 nautical miles south of New Providence. Neither Captain Smith nor the aircraft had been seen since.

He was the only person aboard the aircraft.

For three days, his son and other family members have searched the surrounding waters, holding out hope of finding him alive.

About six volunteers participated in the family's search efforts yesterday, with divers in the water and three boats following behind. The divers were tethered to the boats as they searched underwater.

“They just pulling me around and every time I just get closer to something we mark the spot, so we got a kind of trail going,” Mr Smith said.

In a press statement yesterday, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) said its personnel had located several items believed to be from Captain Smith’s aircraft.

They included aircraft parts and official documents believed to be connected to the missing plane.

The RBDF drone team and divers, working alongside local search and rescue teams, assisted in the recovery.

Senior Lieutenant Patrick Lightfoot said the RBDF had been involved in the search for three days, although operations were frequently hampered by bad weather.

He said a team was mobilised shortly after receiving the initial report, but visibility underwater remained a challenge.

Despite unfavourable conditions, RBDF personnel and volunteers continued searching until nightfall.

RBDF and United States Coast Guard aircraft were also providing aerial support.

Lieutenant Lightfoot said the search covered the area between New Providence and Highbourne Cay, approximately 14 nautical miles from the reported crash site.

About 13 personnel, along with additional divers and underwater drone operators, were aboard HMBS Kamalamee, searching the area where the aircraft last made contact.

HMBS Madeira also had 13 personnel involved in the operation.

Officials were also searching for additional debris from the aircraft.

Lieutenant Lightfoot could not say whether the operation remained a search and rescue mission or had transitioned into a recovery effort. He said there was no set timeframe for the operation but stressed that his team remained committed to intensifying its efforts.

Acting Prime Minister and Exuma MP Chester Cooper told reporters that officials were still hoping for the best possible outcome.

He said he remained in contact with Captain Smith’s family and described the missing pilot as a valued member of the local government council, adding that council members were eager for his return.

Meeanwhile, Captain Smith’s wife, Lauralynn Smith, previously questioned what went wrong to cause her husband’s aircraft to disappear in waters off New Providence.

She said her husband left Exuma in “fine weather” and that his years of flying experience had taught him to carefully check weather conditions before every flight.

“I pray that he is alive,” Mrs Smith told The Tribune on Monday. “I know that whatever I have seen on the radar,  it's unclear or uncertain as to what could possibly be the end result. But I can only remain hopeful.”

Captain Smith also worked as a boat captain and tour guide.