After hours of combing waters off the eastern shoreline, authorities were unable to confirm reports of an aircraft reportedly crashing into the ocean.
Closely watched by dozens of people who dotted the eastern coastline, search teams tried to find evidence that a plane went down around 8a.m.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing what appeared to be an aircraft engulfed in flames crashing into the ocean.
But authorities had, up to press time, been unable to confirm that a plane went down, although emergency medical teams had been called to the scene.
After four hours of concentrating their efforts on the waterfront, officials of the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association, the United States Coast Guard and the Nassau Harbour Patrol had not verified the report.
Operations officer at the Air Traffic Control Tower at the Nassau International Airport Brian Wilson told the Bahama Journal that the tower had no evidence that an aircraft reportedly crashed this morning.
He said calls started flooding in to the tower shortly after 8 o’ clock.
“All aircraft that were in contact with Nassau International Airport air traffic services; known flights, have been accounted for,” he said. “Up to the time of reports of a down aircraft coming in there were no concerns from air traffic control for any aircraft.
We have not received any emergency locator transmitter that most aircraft that crash would emit.” Bahamasair officials placated concerns early on that the aircraft may have been one of its flights. All of the national flag carrier’s aircraft were accounted for, according to top officials.
Captain Pat Rolle, a Civil Aviation official said, “From our report and from the guys investigating these reports, we can’t substantiate that anything actually happened….No one is actually sure what happened other than the fact that someone actually saw something.”
However Police Liaison Officer Superintendent Hulan Hanna, who was watching the search efforts from the coastline also said there was no evidence of a plane crash.
He did add that if an aircraft was involved, then it may have been a “smaller aircraft or a drug plane.”
One of the curious onlookers who was on the eastern shoreline, Pastor Ricardo Russell told the Journal what caught his attention.
“I saw smoke coming from the sky and heading downwards to the sea. The object went into the water,” he said, unable to say definitively that it was an aircraft.
The Bahama Journal
