The bodies of four family members whose plane from the Bahamas crashed on the way back to Florida have been found by relatives who took up the heartbreaking search effort, their family has revealed.
Mario Lamar, 80, who was piloting the doomed craft, along with his wife, Lili Lamar, 79, and two of their grandchildren, 28-year-old Sofia Sosa and 22-year-old Christian Sosa, were on board the private plane that went down in the Atlantic Ocean Monday morning, vanishing near North Andros Island.
“The search and recovery mission was conducted alongside family members and civilians who answered our call for help. Our relatives ultimately located our loved ones and had to bring them aboard their own vessels,” Silvia Larrieu, Mario and Lili’s niece, said in a statement to the Miami Herald.
“We are deeply grateful to everyone who supported us, searched alongside us, and kept our family in their prayers. We respectfully ask for privacy as we mourn this unimaginable loss.”
Sofia and Christian Sosa’s father rushed to the Bahamas after hearing about the crash and began searching the waterway. Along with his two other sons and an uncle, searched the waterway for hours until all four of their relatives’ bodies were found by Tuesday morning.
Following the tragic discovery, Larrieu said the family is working in tandem with the Coast Guard to “bring our loved ones home safely and with dignity.”
The family’s five-seater PA-34 Piper aircraft, bound for Opa-locka, Fla. went down about 13 miles west of Andros Island at 2:20 p.m. Monday, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
The small private plane departed from Great Harbor Cay that morning after the family spent Labor Day weekend watching the sunset at their home on the tropical island.
“They’ve spent their whole life going there. That’s like their second home,” Larrieu told the outlet. “They were coming home.”
The aircraft went off the radar after its speed rapidly fluctuated and its altitude suddenly dropped from 10,000 feet to 3,700 feet in just three minutes, according to FlightAware data.