What happened
On September 8, 2002, an agricultural airplane disappeared during a ferry flight from Fort Lauderdale to St. Croix. The aircraft departed at 07:27, initially communicating with the Fort Lauderdale Executive Air Traffic Control Tower before transitioning to the Fort Lauderdale International ATC Tower.
At 07:31, the pilot was in contact with air traffic control, and by 08:52, the pilot contacted Nassau Approach Control. At that time, the aircraft was at 1,500 feet and approximately 40 miles northwest of Nassau. The controller provided a discrete transponder code and identified the aircraft as being 35 miles west of Nassau. Due to the low altitude, the controller instructed the pilot to fly a specific heading until abeam Nassau before proceeding on-course.
At 09:28, the controller advised the pilot of traffic and location, instructing the pilot to resume normal navigation. Radar services were terminated at 09:32. The last known position was approximately 20 nautical miles southeast of Nassau, where the aircraft was proceeding southeast after being vectored away from traffic and weather. No further communications were received.
The U.S. Coast Guard was notified of the missing aircraft by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at 14:20 on September 8, 2002. A communications search and a track line search toward Providenciales conducted on September 12, 2002, yielded no results.
The investigation
The investigation revealed that the aircraft had been modified by an unknown person to allow fuel to flow from the 38 cubic foot hopper tank to the right wing fuel tank. The aircraft did not have a factory-installed artificial horizon; instead, the pilot carried a 12-volt battery and an electrically operated artificial horizon on board.
Weather analysis showed that at the time of the last known position, infrared satellite imagery indicated a band of high clouds with embedded cumulonimbus clouds extending from the Fort Lauderdale and Nassau area toward the Virgin Islands. The aircraft's last known position was on the leading edge of this higher cloud cover, which featured tops reaching 38,000 feet. Enhanced cloud development with tops up to 44,000 feet was noted approximately 38 miles south of the last known position.
There was no record that the pilot had obtained a preflight weather briefing through an FAA Automated Flight Service Station or DUAT vendors.