What happened
On 21 January 2019, an Embraer Phenom 300, registration N264DB, departed Nantes Airport for a scheduled return trip to Cardiff Airport. The flight was operated under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) with a planned cruising altitude of 6,000 feet and a flight path intended to pass over the island of Guernsey. The aircraft departed from Runway 03 at 19:15 hrs, and the pilot received clearance from Nantes Approach Control to climb to 5,500 feet.
During the flight, the pilot requested and received permission to descend to maintain Visual Meteorological Conditions. The final communication with Jersey Air Traffic Control occurred at 20:12 hrs, when the pilot requested an additional descent. While secondary radar tracked the aircraft until 20:16:34 hrs, no distress signal was transmitted by the crew.
Following a search operation, the wreckage was located on 4 February 2019, at a depth of 63 meters a few kilometers north of Guernsey. The wreckage was found relatively intact. On 6 February 2019, the body of one passenger was recovered from the cabin, while the pilot's remains were not found. The incident resulted in one fatality.
Findings
No specific findings regarding the mechanical or operational cause of the crash were provided in the source text, though the aircraft was tracked via primary radar after losing secondary radar contact.