The fighters broke away before the aircraft overflew Cuba
An American aircraft whose pilot had been unresponsive for hours crashed near Jamaica Friday afternoon, Jamaican officials told the Associated Press. It isn’t yet clear if anyone on board the aircraft survived the incident.
The aircraft, which departed Rochester, New York en route to Florida Friday morning, went unresponsive over the southwest Atlantic. U.S. military jets were dispatched by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to escort the aircraft, but the F-15s broke away before the aircraft overflew Cuba.
Those aboard the aircraft, a SOCATA TBM-700 turboprop with tail number N900KN, may have been suffering from hypoxia, NORAD said. Hypoxia can disable pilots and passengers aboard high-flying aircraft that lose cabin pressurization if they don’t engage supplemental oxygen systems before they’re rendered unconscious. Hypoxia can be fatal if supplemental oxygen isn’t administered quickly.
N900KN’s last heading change before flying over the ocean was a turn over North Carolina. It then proceeded on a straight path towards Cuba, according to data from flight tracking service FlightAware. It flew over Cuba, then proceeded towards Jamaica over the Caribbean Sea. FlightAware appeared to show the aircraft lose altitude and change direction off the Jamaica coast a few minutes before losing data from the plane altogether, though that reading may have been the service’s interpretation of the aircraft running out of fuel and crashing.