Miami - A desperate search has been launched after a small plane carrying a New York CEO and three others disappeared while flying through the Bermuda Triangle.
Miami Traffic Control lost touch with the aircraft, carrying Jennifer Blumin, Nathan Ulrich and Blumin’s two young sons, at about 2.10pm on Monday.
It vanished 37 miles east of the Bahamas – part of the Bermuda Triangle.
Blumin, of New York, is founder and boss of event management firm, Skylight Group, which confirmed that she and her family were on board.
Ulrich is the founder and owner of Xootr, which manufactures folding kick scooters and folding bicycles, and is thought to have been piloting the plane.
The pilot’s last transmission said the plane was at an altitude of 24,000 feet and going at a speed of 300 knots.
His twin-engine MU-2B left Puerto Rico at about 11am and was destined for Titusville, Florida, but never arrived. Its last known location was east of the island of Eleuthera.
The Coast Guard searched between Florida and the Bahamas for the plane on Monday but could not find it. Customs and Border Patrol and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force also joined the hunt.
The Bermuda Triangle lies in a section of the North Atlantic Ocean and covers an area of 440 000 miles (more than 700 000km) of sea.
It has been blamed for the disappearance of at least 20 planes and 50 ships in the past 100 years.
Debris that appeared to be from a plane and an oil slick was spotted in the search area east of Eleuthera but authorities were still trying to determine whether it came from the missing plane, said Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Kelly, a Coast Guard spokesman.
"We are still searching and that search is going to go on through the night and into tomorrow," Kelly said.
Blumin's company released a statement confirming that she and members of her family were on the plane.
"Her family is working with investigators and we politely ask that you respect their privacy at this time," the company said.