An unresponsive U.S. plane carrying an unknown number of passengers crashed off the coast of Jamaica on Friday, American and Jamaican officials said.
"We can confirm that the plane has gone down," Major Basil Jarrett of the Jamaican Defense Force told the Associated Press. No information about the passengers was immediately available.
The Socata TBM-900 went down about 14 miles northeast of Port Antonio some time after air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilot at around 10 a.m. EDT, the Federal Aviation Administration told the AP.
The aircraft is registered to a New York developer named Larry Glazer, but it was not immediately clear if he was on the plane when it took off from a Rochester, N.Y., airport at 8:45 a.m. Attempts to reach Glazer by phone were unsuccessful, USA Today reported.
Two U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jets were dispatched to track the single-engine plane at 11:30 a.m., officials from the North American Aerospace Defense Command told USA Today.
As they followed the plane, the jet pilots noticed the aircraft's windows were frosted, NORAD spokeswoman Army Major Beth Smith told the newspaper. They were unable to communicate with any of the passengers and ended their pursuit as the plane entered Cuban airspace.
By 2 p.m. the plane was over the Caribbean Sea south of Cuba, according to FlightAware, an aviation tracking website.
The single-engine plane was scheduled to land in Naples, Florida, by 12 p.m., according to the FAA.
