The United States Coast Guard has suspended its search for six people aboard a medical transport jet that crashed while flying from Bermuda to Boston.
"Suspending a search is not an easy decision," Rear Admiral Matthew Lake, commander of the Coast Guard's Northeast District, said in a statement on Sunday.
Search teams spent approximately 66 hours covering 4,445 miles (7,150 km) by air and sea before calling off the operation. Authorities confirmed that debris found off the shore of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, came from the aircraft.
The aircraft was a Gulfstream G100 operated by Canada-based Latitude Air Ambulance. It carried two pilots, two medical staff, a patient, and a patient's relative, according to Clarence Togeretz, director of flight operations at the company.
The four crew members were Canadian. The two passengers were Bermudian, according to authorities.
In a statement on Sunday, Latitude Air Ambulance said: "Given the information shared by authorities and the conclusion of the search-and-rescue phase, we must now face the heartbreaking reality that the four members of our Latitude team, our patient and the patient's family escort, who were aboard Heartbeat 104, are presumed to have died."
The aircraft had flown to Bermuda to collect the patient and was heading to Boston Logan International Airport when contact was lost.
The US Federal Aviation Administration alerted the Coast Guard at approximately 2:00 a.m. local time on Saturday (06:00 GMT) after the jet stopped responding.
Flight-tracking data showed a steep descent in the aircraft's final minutes, during which air traffic controllers struggled to re-establish contact. Authorities have not yet determined what caused the aircraft to go down.
Lake said at a Sunday news conference that the water around the debris field was approximately 80 to 90 feet (24 to 27 metres) deep. He offered condolences to the families of those on board and thanked the agencies involved in the search operation.
Latitude Air Ambulance specialises in medical evacuation and repatriation flights, carrying patients home from other countries. The company states that its missions are normally staffed by two pilots and medical personnel.
