NORAD jet fighters trail plane over Atlantic Ocean

[flowers]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/05/us/norad-air-threat/index.html

CNN) -- The U.S. military Thursday launched a pair of jet fighters to trail a small aircraft that was unresponsive over the Atlantic Ocean and headed towards Cuban airspace, NORAD said.

Two F-15s were flying with the plane east of Florida. The windows, according to a NORAD spokesman, were frosted and it was unknown how much fuel was left.

NORAD was in touch with Cuban authorities via the U.S. Coast Guard. The U.S. military jets will not enter Cuban airspace, a NORAD spokesman said.

The Socata TBM-700 light business and utility aircraft departed from Rochester, New York, with a flight plan to land in Naples, Florida, NORAD said. But the plane's occupants did not respond to communication attempts

[mystery-ak]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/jamaican-officials-unresponsive-plane-crashed

US Plane With Unresponsive Pilot Crashes Off Jamaica

ByAPPublishedSEPTEMBER 5, 2014, 2:41 PM EDT

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — A private U.S. plane with an unresponsive pilot crashed into the ocean north of the Caribbean island Friday after a journey of more than 1,700 miles.

Maj. Basil Jarrett of the Jamaican Defense Force said the plane went down about 14 miles (22 kilometers) northeast of Port Antonio and the military sent aircraft to investigate and the military sent aircraft to investigate.

"We can confirm that the plane has gone down," he said. There was no immediate information about the people on board.

The plane took off at 8:45 a.m. EDT from the Greater Rochester International Airport in New York, according to local officials. Air traffic controllers were last able to contact the pilot of the Socata TBM700, a high performance single-engine turboprop, at 10 a.m. EDT, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

The agency said it had not confirmed the number of people aboard.

The pilot, who was not identified, had filed a flight plan with the FAA to fly from Rochester to Naples, Florida. Fighter jets were scrambled at 11:30 a.m. EDT and followed the plane until it reached Cuban airspace, when they peeled off, said Preston Schlachter, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command & US Northern Command. FlightAware, an aviation tracking website, showed the plane over the Caribbean south of Cuba at about 2 p.m. EDT.

FlightAware identified the plane's tail number as N900KN. FAA records show the plane 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.

A person who answered the phone at Buckingham Properties declined to comment. 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."

The Air Force and Transportation Security Administration contacted Rochester airport officials about the plane at about 10:45 a.m., according to Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks. The airport referred all inquiries to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The incident is the second time in less than a week that private pilot has become unresponsive during a flight. On Saturday, a pilot lost consciousness and his plane drifted into restricted airspace over the nation's capital. Fighter jets were also launched in that case and stayed with the small aircraft until it ran out of fuel and crashed Saturday into the Atlantic.

___

Joan Lowy reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Miami and Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, N.Y., and Judith Ausuebel in New York contributed to this report.

[mystery-ak]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2745388/Fighters-scrambled-pilot-fails-respond.html

Ghost plane: Jets scrambled as NY real estate developer and wife crash into sea off Jamaica - after flying 1,700 miles and invading Cuban airspace with pilot slumped over the controls

    Rochester real estate developer Larry Glazer, whose company owned the plane, and his wife Jane were both killed in the crash
    Private plane took off from Rochester, New York on Friday morning and was headed towards Florida but passed its destination
    It passed through Cuban airspace before reaching the Caribbean and crashing in the water off Jamaica on Friday afternoon
    Two fighter jets were launched after Glazer failed to make contact and the pilots reported seeing him slumped over the controls
    Officials suspect an oxygen deprivation in the plane, which had a pressurized cabin, could have caused them to pass out

By Lydia Warren for MailOnline

Published: 12:30 EST, 5 September 2014 | Updated: 16:41 EST, 5 September 2014


Killed: Rochester real estate developer Larry Glazer and his wife Jane, both 68, were aboard the aircraft that lost contact with air traffic controllers and flew 1,700 miles before crashing in the water off Jamaica

continued

[flowers]

this was a newer high end plane. Bought in March of this year. I thought faa made someone wear a oxygen mask during the flight to prevent this problem?

[flowers]

Unresponsive private plane still missing after crash off Jamaican coast

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/09/06/unresponsive-private-plane-vanishes-off-jamaican-coast/

Authorities on the island of Jamaica prepared Saturday to resume the search for the mysterious private plane that lost contact with ground controllers on a flight from New York to Florida and crashed about 14 miles northeast of the Caribbean island.

The plane was carrying a prominent upstate New York couple.

A son of Rochester real estate developer Laurence Glazer and his entrepreneur wife, Jane, says he cannot confirm they were killed in the crash. But numerous public officials extended their condolences for a couple described as a linchpin in efforts to rejuvenate a city stung by the decline of corporate giants.

The Glazers were taken on a ghostly 1,700-mile journey after apparently becoming incapacitated. U.S. fighter pilots launched to shadow the unresponsive aircraft observed the pilot slumped over and its windows frosting over.

[Atomic Cow]

this was a newer high end plane. Bought in March of this year. I thought faa made someone wear a oxygen mask during the flight to prevent this problem?

Nope, unless you're on a commercial flight and one pilot leaves the flight deck.  And I'm not even sure if that rule is still in effect.  It was years ago.

Private aircraft are not governed under the same strict rules that commercial aircraft are.

Here is the aircraft in question.

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=7789065

This actually was the photo Fox News was using yesterday, for a while at the top of their website.

[Oceander]

Just to be intolerably crass:  what were their politics?

[flowers]

Just to be intolerably crass:  what were their politics?

Just to be crass with ya.....they were high end real estate developers in NY I think.

Developer dead in mystery plane crash revamped a New York city

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/09/07/developer-dead-in-mystery-plane-crash-revamped-new-york-city/?intcmp=latestnews

A developer presumed dead with his wife in a private plane crash near Jamaica had an "uncanny instinct" for revitalizing properties and an "incalculable" impact on his western New York hometown's resurgence from crumbling industrial center to trendy destination for young professionals, friends and colleagues said.

Laurence Glazer, 68, bought up dozens of properties in Rochester, on the shores of Lake Ontario, including landmark buildings belonging to the manufacturing giants Xerox Corp. and Bausch + Lomb. He converted abandoned factories into loft apartments and turned a shuttered hospital into offices.

Glazer had a way of "taking properties that were dead and breathing life back into them at a time when people were really skeptical about the ability to do that," Heidi Zimmer-Meyer, president of Rochester's Downtown Development Corp., said Saturday.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Glazer and his wife Jane were on a single-engine turboprop Socata TBM700 that flew on its own for 1,700 miles before running out of fuel and slamming into the sea off Jamaica's northeast coastline. The couple apparently was incapacitated.

Rescue crews said Saturday they could no longer see debris spotted Friday evening by a military aircraft drifting roughly 24 miles off the coastal town of Port Antonio in a stretch where the water is up to 6,500 feet. A 154-foot U.S. Coast Guard cutter and a helicopter crew aided in the search Saturday.

"We would have to assume it may have sunk," Jamaica Coast Guard Commander Antonette Wemyss-Gorman said.

Laurence and Jane Glazer, the founder of household-products catalog company QCI Direct, were both experienced pilots. They were flying to Naples, Florida, near where Glazer's development company, Buckingham Properties, also has interests.

"It's beyond tragic here. We're reeling," Zimmer-Meyer said, calling the couple "people who just cannot be replaced."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy and Sen. Charles Schumer were among the officials who publicly expressed sorrow for the couple's loss.

Duffy, the former mayor of Rochester, said the Glazers "possessed two of the brightest minds in business."

Air traffic controllers were last able to contact the pilot of the Glazers' plane at 10 a.m., about 75 minutes after it took off from the Greater Rochester International Airport.

Fighter pilots sent to shadow the plane saw its windows frosting over and the pilot slumped over but breathing. One of the fighter pilots speculated that the Socata pilot was suffering from hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation.