An 80-year-old Florida pilot, his wife and two adult grandchildren went missing on Monday when the small aircraft they were travelling in vanished from radar during a flight from Great Harbour Cay in the Bahamas to Miami. The disappearance has triggered a joint search and rescue operation by the US Coast Guard and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, while relatives publicly appealed for help and additional resources to locate the plane and its four occupants.

Mario Lamar, an experienced pilot of 40 years, was flying his Piper PA-34 Seneca carrying his wife Lili, 79, and grandchildren Sofia Sosa, 28, and Christian Sosa, 22, after a Labour Day weekend trip. FlightAware data showed the aircraft dropped sharply from around 10,000 feet to 3,700 feet within three minutes and circled before disappearing from radar over waters near Red Bays, close to rough weather by Andros Island; contact was lost roughly 13 miles west of the island. Poor weather initially delayed search efforts, and by 5pm the Bahamian Defence Force reported no results, prompting the family to fly out themselves and call for wider assistance from authorities.