A plane left for the Florida Keys last weekend. Authorities say it’s been missing since
The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for “a possible downed aircraft” that reportedly left Palm Beach County with two people on board who were bound for Key West over the weekend, according to authorities.
The pilot’s name is Thomas Campana, 37, and the passenger’s name is Alexandra Tufo, 36, her sister Lana Tufo told the Miami Herald. They are a couple, she said.
On Thursday, authorities determined the aircraft could be approximately 15 miles north of Big Pine Key, the military branch wrote via Twitter.
“Air and surface rescue crews found a(n) (oil) sheen, but currently no sign of distress or debris in the search area,” the Coast Guard tweeted.
The search began Tuesday after the Federal Aviation Administration alerted local authorities around 1:16 p.m. Tuesday that a single-engine Vans RV-12 was missing after it reportedly left the Palm Beach County Park Airport near Lantana two days before, the federal agency said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
“Palm Beach County Park Airport does not have an air traffic control tower, no flight plan was filed and no air traffic services were provided,” Kiiva Williams, an FAA spokesperson, said in an email.
Lana Tufo said her sister, who goes by Ali, works for a New York-based investment firm and that it was her colleagues who called the Coast Guard after she didn’t come to work Tuesday because they knew about her trip. She said she would like to know why the FAA did not alert the Coast Guard earlier about the plane’s disappearance.
”For now I’m grieving my sister, who was my best friend and my ‘twin born two years earlier’ as she called herself. A part of my soul went down with that plane,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
Authorities did not provide more information.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 5:50 PM.
