After an extensive search and rescue effort, Venice-based Agape Flights confirmed that there were no survivors in a Thursday plane crash in southwestern Haiti.
Here’s what the flight’s track log shows:
Agape Flights lost contact with the Embraer 110 Bandeirante, registered as N316AF, when it dropped off radar over Jérémie, Haiti. The plane was delivering aid following Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall on Oct. 28 and caused widespread flooding, landslides, and infrastructure damage across parts of Jamaica, southern Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
Agape has not yet shared how many people were on board. The nonprofit Christian aviation ministry had been coordinating the delivery of food, water, generators, and other essential supplies to affected areas in the aftermath of the storm. The organization staged approximately 40 tons of food in Miami and gathered more than 100 generators, working alongside multiple partner aid organizations to support recovery efforts across the region.
What does flight track data show?
FlightAware’s estimated tracking data captures the aircraft’s final recorded moments before the signal cut off.
The plane departed Venice Municipal Airport at 7:34 a.m. to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, where it arrived at 9:05 a.m. The aircraft departed again at 9:36, heading to Cap-Hatien International Airport (CAP) on Haiti’s northern coast.
FlightAware data shows the next leg of the journey listed with estimated times rather than confirmed radar tracking. The aircraft was shown departing Cap-Haïtien at 1:18 p.m. with a last estimated position near Jérémie at 1:51 p.m. A later track from FlightAware shows the plane first appearing near Jérémie at 2:33 p.m., with contact lost four minutes later at 2:37 p.m. over a mountainous region southeast of the city.
Before losing contact, the plane climbed rapidly from about 4,600 feet to a peak near 6,800 feet, with climb rates exceeding 1,000 feet per minute at times. During the climb, the plane’s groundspeed increased steadily, reaching 186 mph, while its course shifted generally east to southeast.
After reaching its highest recorded altitude in the four-minute timespan, the aircraft began descending. The descent rate increased sharply toward the end of the tracking data, with the last recorded rate at 3,158 feet per minute. The signal ended at about 2:37 p.m., while the aircraft was still descending, leaving the final moments of the flight unrecorded.
Agape CEO Allen Speer said there’s no information available at this time on what led to the plane crash. Agape Flights is actively working to gather further details and to determine the circumstances surrounding the loss of contact.
Speer shared in a Facebook post that out of privacy and respect for the deceased, they would not be sharing the names of those who perished in the crash.
For more than 40 years, Agape Flights has provided humanitarian aid and logistical support to missionaries and relief partners throughout the Caribbean and the Bahamas, responding to major crises including the 2010 Haiti earthquake and Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
Speer asked the public for prayers during this difficult time.
“We grieve deeply for the families of the pilots who are now enduring an unimaginable loss, and we ask you, our family, to lift them up in prayer for strength when the weight feels unbearable, for comfort, when there are no words, and for God’s peace to surround them in every moment,” Speer said in a Facebook post.
Melissa Pérez-Carrillo covers breaking news and public safety for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Reach out at mperezcarrillo@gannett.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Agape plane’s final minutes captured in flight data before crash
Reporting by Melissa Pérez-Carrillo, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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