MIAMI — Four bodies have been recovered after a plane carrying four relatives disappeared during a flight from the Bahamas to the Miami area, prompting a multi-agency search involving the U.S. Coast Guard.
Early Tuesday, the family had said one body had been recovered. Later, Lt. Darius Adams, public relations officer for the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, told CNN's Pam Brown on The Situation Room that all four bodies had been recovered.
The PA-34 Piper, a five-seater aircraft, left Great Harbour Cay Monday bound for Miami Executive Airport, the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Federal Aviation Administration said. Air traffic control later lost contact with the plane roughly 13 miles west of Andros Island, the largest island in the Bahamas.
"On the flight this morning was my uncle Mario Lamar, his wife Lili Lamar and two of his grandchildren, Christian Sosa and Sofi Sosa," Silvi Larrieu told CNN in an initial statement. Her uncle, who is 80, has more than 40 years of flying experience, the statement said.
In an update Tuesday, Larrieu announced that all four family members had been found dead.
"The search and recovery mission was conducted alongside family members and civilians who answered our call for help. Our relatives ultimately located our loved ones and had to bring them aboard their own vessels," the family's updated statement said. "We are now in communication and working with the U.S. Coast Guard to bring our loved ones home safely and with dignity."
Adams told CNN the Royal Bahamas Defence Force would still be sending divers to canvass the area of the plane's disappearance, "to ensure that we bring some sort of closure and some sort of relief to the family to bring in a full investigation, ensure that they know that everything that we needed to do was completed."
The FAA issued a search Alert Notice (ALNOT) for the plane after air traffic control lost communication with the pilot around 10:50 a.m. local time on Monday, the agency said. The ALNOT alerts public safety agencies, pilots and airports to start looking for a missing aircraft.
Authorities were alerted to the missing plane around 2:20 p.m., when police received a report that "an aircraft may have gone down in the waters off Red Bays," a settlement on the northwestern tip of Andros Island, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said.
According to tracking site FlightRadar24, the plane, which bears the tail number N212ML, appears to have circled off the Bahamian coast before disappearing from radar.
At the time of the plane's disappearance, there were heavy thunderstorms in the area, though it's unclear if weather may have played a factor.
The U.S. Coast Guard said it was assisting the Royal Bahamas Defence Force in the search, some 15 miles off Andros Island, and had deployed an HC-144 Ocean Sentry surveillance plane to scour the waters.
An initial search attempt was delayed by bad weather but was expected to resume once conditions improved, police said, citing the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association.
"Efforts to locate the aircraft and its occupants remain a priority," police said.
CNN has reached out to the Civil Aviation Authority Bahamas, the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association and the NTSB for details.
The family is asking anyone who may have been nearby to "immediately report anything they witnessed, including an aircraft in distress, unusual activity on the water or shoreline, or any radio communications."
"Whether it’s by plane, by boat, any signs that you’ve noticed, to help us find them and bring them back alive," Larrieu said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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