SEBASTIAN, Fla. — The Royal Bahamas Defense Force and the Coast Guard is stopping the search for a missing plane last seen in Sebastian, Florida on Aug. 4.
59-year-old Christopher Moore from Louisville, Kentucky was the sole person on the plane that has been missing since Aug. 4.
Chris Moore is pictured below, on left:
WPTV spoke with Cameron Hitchcock, a close friend to Moore. Hitchcock and Moore met in 2013 when Moore bought a private plane and had Hitchcock as his pilot.
Hitchcock said Moore fell in love with flying and decided to pursue his own license.
"It was more than just a hobby, it was a passion," Hitchcock said. "He's actually building and redoing an entire airplane at his house in Kentucky right now."
Moore obtained a sport-pilot license, which allows the operation of light-sport aircraft. This type of license is one step below a private pilot license.
According to Hitchcock, Moore was very experienced with this flight route.
Typically, Moore would fly from Kentucky to Lantana to stay at Hitchcock's house for the night before flying to the Bahamas the next morning. However, due to the tropical weather from Debby over the weekend, he stayed in Sebastian instead. Sunday morning, Moore got ready to fly to Marsh Harbor.
"He spoke to me in the morning, we went over a briefing of what the flight was going to look like, what the weather looked like, what route he should take and it looked really good," Hitchcock said.
Moore left Sebastian, Florida, for Marsh Harbor, Bahamas, at around 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
"I watch a lot when he goes over the Gulf Stream, and then once he gets over the Bahamas I'm like 'Okay, he's got it'," Hitchcock said.
Sunday afternoon, Hitchcock got a call from the person that was supposed to pick up Moore and Moore's wife, saying they haven't heard from him and that messages to him were not being delivered. When they checked the flight tracker, it showed the flight going off the radar right off Grand Bahama.
Ever since, Moore's family and friends have been working tirelessly to find the missing pilot.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Third Class Nicholas Strasburg said he couldn’t reveal the exact times the plane was supposed to take-off or land, but officials received the report of an overdue aircraft on Sunday morning.
The Coast Guard found a pin on the plane just southwest of Treasure Key and ran patterns for 1,760 square miles with two crews but ultimately found nothing.
"We understand that it's very difficult if something goes down in a marsh, it can get swallowed up and you can't see it," Hitchcock said.
“At this time, the search is suspended pending the development of further information,” Strasburg said.
Fort Lauderdale-based private search and rescue company Tropic Air Rescue also helped in the search. The Royal Bahamian Defense Force has decided to suspend their search along with the Coast Guard.
"We’re novices at this whole search and rescue thing, but there has to be ways to identify where he is because we have no indication that he crashed and perished" Hitchcock said. "That's a possibility obviously, but were keeping our hopes up that he lost an engine and he’s in a remote area where he has no cell phone service, and he had a cooler full of water and food and he could last weeks, possibly."
Hitchcock said the plane Moore was flying recently went through a full overhaul and has clean maintenance records.
"There is no reason for us to believe that there was an issue with the plane, but there is a possibility he had an electrical failure and that's why we lost him on the tracker," Hitchcock said.
Friends and family are asking anyone flying to and from The Abacos, Bahamas, to keep an eye out for a red and white single engine airplane.
"We are best buddies, and I really hope to fly with him again," Hitchcock said. "We're just doing everything we can, we're pulling every string we can and we're doing everything we can to find him."
