By Ava Turnquest  

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

HOPES of finding missing US couple Forrest and Donna Sanco alive appeared dashed last night after an aircraft wheel was recovered in the sea off Eleuthera.

And a pilot who has been engaged in the search for the couple told The Tribune he is “99 per cent” certain the wheel is off the Cessna aircraft they were flying when the couple vanished nearly three weeks ago.

The San Salvador-based pilot and aircraft engineer who has flown around the Bahamian islands for 25 years, said: “I was flying today and was starting to do the Exuma chain when I got a WhatsApp message saying some guy found a wheel off a plane. This was about 30 miles north west of Eleuthera.

“I would say 99 per cent that it matches the plane. I am also an aircraft engineer and this is definitely a wheel from a Cessna.”

The Sancos were flying a newly-bought Cessna when they took off from North Eleuthera on September 26 heading down for their honeymoon in Rum Cay. They never arrived and it was only last Friday when their family in the States appealed for help in finding them that the alarm was raised.

The pilot, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a photograph of the recovered wheel to sent him showed it had been in an accident.

“The axle nut is still attached to the wheel. For that to happen you would have had to have had ditch where the wheel gets broken off as the plane hits the water,” he said.

“The wheel has not been in the water long because it has not been corroded. In sea water these things corrode incredibly fast and this isn’t showing corrosion so it has to have been in the water for just a short time.”

The pilot has spent the last three days flying hundreds of miles, crisscrossing the islands along the Sancos’ planned route to Rum Cay.

“I have been over the entire east coast of Long Island, Conception, Cat Island and Rum Cay several times,” he said.

Flying about around 1000 feet he would look for any possible evidence of the missing plane either on the ground or in the water. If anything suspicious appeared he would take photographs and then examine these back home after landing.

“Three days ago I found an orange object which looked like a life raft on a beach in a very, very isolated place on Cat Island. Supposedly police went to look and came back with the report that it was old,” said the pilot.

“I flew over there again this morning and took some photographs which I’ll have a look at tonight just to triple check.”

Even with the finding of the Cessna wheel, the pilot has still not abandoned hope that somehow the couple can still be found alive.

This morning he will be back behind the wheel of his aircraft, heading north to Eleuthera to scout the seas once again.

The find comes as dedicated searches by authorities for the couple have stalled.

Royal Bahamas Defense Force press liaison Desi Corneile told The Tribune yesterday that the police force had the lead on the investigation because the couple were last seen on land. However, she noted that all active RBDF planes and vessels have been put on alert concerning the missing couple.

“We’ve had specific air patrols, along with the Coast Guard, but there’s not much info to go on. We have more than 100,000 square miles. So it’s going to be ongoing, everybody, all our sea and air crews have been put on alert, and we will to continue to support the police and family in the search.”

When contacted yesterday, Bahamas Air and Sea Rescue Association (BASRA) Operations Manager Chris Lloyd said the organization had no leads.

“An aircraft normally would be reported overdue in an hour, and this is ten days in the open Atlantic Ocean. It’s incredible,” he continued, “he (Sanco) closed the flight plan so air traffic wasn’t concerned, and then you expect them to come off radar because they’re descending. 

“But you and your new husband go on vacation in a small plane to an out island and nobody is calling you? No family, no friends, no Facebook pics? Even worse the caretaker expecting to pick you up from airport and the owner of the house you’re staying in doesn’t call to say welcome? It’s unbelievable.”

Mr Lloyd said: “The Coast Guard has sent a high tech plane with heat seeking, oil seeking, the works but even that the RBDF had to beg for that because it’s so old. 

“The next morning you would have found something but that’s ocean, the currents rip through there.”