Relative says all 4 family members aboard plane missing off the Bahamas found dead

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All four family members aboard a small plane that went missing off the Bahamas were found dead Tuesday after relatives launched their own search effort, a family member said.

Silvia Larrieu said family on boats recovered the bodies. The family was working with the U.S. Coast Guard to bring them home.

“We are deeply grateful to everyone who supported us, searched alongside us, and kept our family in their prayers,” the family said in a statement. “We respectfully ask for privacy as we mourn this unimaginable loss.”

The plane carrying Larrieu's uncle, his wife and their grandchildren went missing on Monday after departing Great Harbour Cay, a city in the Berry Islands of the Bahamas, in the morning for Miami Executive Airport in Miami-Dade County, according to Bahamas police.

Larrieu said her uncle, 80-year-old Mario Lamar, had more than 40 years of experience as a pilot and routinely flew to the Bahamas, where he had a second home in Great Harbour Cay.

The plane was also carrying his wife, Lili, 79, and their grandchildren, Sofi Sosa, 28, and Christian Sosa, 22. They were returning home to Miami from a trip over the long weekend.

Sofi Sosa had texted her parents in a family chat that they were leaving, and a flight plan her uncle filed showed the time the plane was expected to land, Larrieu said.

The family contacted authorities after seeing messages were not being delivered.

“This is awful,” Larrieu told The Associated Press in a brief phone interview.

Bahamas police identified the plane as a PA-34 Piper five-seater aircraft, with tail number N212ML. Air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft when it was about 13 miles west of Andros Island, Bahamas police said. The island is roughly 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Miami.

Larrieu said her uncle kept the plane in pristine condition and was very cautious.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Nicolina Converso said a Coast Guard plane was helping with the search on Tuesday. Authorities in the Bahamas requested the agency’s help around 2 p.m. Monday following a report of a downed airplane. Search efforts, however, were postponed due to inclement weather, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a news release on Facebook.

The four deaths come less than two months after a plane crash in North Andros in the Bahamas killed 10 people.