KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Mystery shrouds the crash of a private plane carrying a prominent upstate New York couple who were taken on a ghostly 1,700-mile journey after apparently becoming incapacitated at the controls before slamming into the waters off Jamaica. The wreckage of the high-performance plane carrying Rochester real estate developer Laurence Glazer and his entrepreneur wife, Jane — both experienced and enthusiastic pilots — had not been found late Friday, hours after U.S. fighter pilots launched to shadow the unresponsive aircraft observed the pilot slumped over and its windows frosting over. The plane's pilot had indicated there was a problem and twice asked to descend to a lower altitude before permission was granted by an air traffic controller, according to a recording of the radio conversation. [...] numerous public officials offered their condolences for a couple described as a linchpin in efforts to rejuvenate an upstate New York city stung by the decline of corporate giants Kodak, Bausch & Lomb and Xerox. "Larry spends some of his spare time on the ground — gardening around his house with his wife, Jane; and some in the sky — flying his plane," a biography on the company website said. Air traffic controllers were last able to contact the pilot at 10 a.m., the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. On a recording made by LiveATC, a website that monitors and posts air traffic control audio recordings, the pilot can be heard saying, We need to descend down to about (18,000 feet). National Transportation Safety Board officials were in contact authorities in Jamaica but had not made a decision as of late Friday whether to investigate the incident, board spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. Cases of pilots becoming unresponsive while their planes wander the sky are unusual, with probably not much more than a handful of such incidents over the last decade, said aviation safety expert John Goglia.
Reported by SeattlePI.com 4 hours ago.
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