By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

BRANDON Simmons yesterday vowed to keep moving forward with the search for his mother and her husband - Forrest and Donna Sanco - as authorities suspended their search for the missing couple’s plane.

And as relatives criticized efforts by local authorities to track down their loved ones, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force press liaison Lieutenant Desi Corneille told The Tribune the authorities were still on alert, but there was nothing new to go on.

She said the RBDF’s main support element, the US Coast Guard, had advised they could not do a planned search effort.

However, U.S. Coast Guard Liaison Officer to The Bahamas Lieutenant Commander Aaron Mader said: “RBDF still has the lead and suspended the search as has the US Coast Guard. We have both suspended active search and we officially suspended when they did.”

Mr Simmons said the family was not taking the news well, but are now focused on obtaining a model of ocean surface currents for the time period when the plane tyre was found to enhance search of possible locations.

An aircraft wheel was recovered in the sea off Eleuthera last week, and is believed to be from the Cessna aircraft the honeymooners were flying when the couple vanished nearly three weeks ago. The wheel recovered from the ocean off Eleuthera had a yellow cap similar to the one that was on the Sanco plane when it was serviced in Texas before they took off for the Bahamas. Mr Simmons said they have since received confirmation from Civil Aviation Director Delvin Major.

Mr Major did not return calls placed yesterday.

“We’re not taking it very well, we’re still going to search the area,” Mr Simmons told The Tribune.

“Civil Aviation did confirm that the tyre is off the plane.

The RBDF passed it on to the police force but there’s been no contact. They’ve only gone out once. We feel like there hasn’t been hardly any search. We’ve been on the phones trying to get anything, and we have the privately funded pilot so we’re going to be moving forward.” 

It’s been 24 days now since the Sancos were last heard from.

Donna – a nurse by profession is originally from Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She recently relocated to Fort Worth, Texas where Forrest, an aeronautical engineer military contractor, lives.

He was also described as “very intelligent” when it comes to aviation, heightening relatives beliefs they are still alive and could be stranded on a Bahamian cay.

An online post to the Facebook page created for the search read: “Our pilots are working on narrowing down our search area, and hopefully producing results for our upcoming searches this week. So far today, we’ve contacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Miami, to assist with constructing a model of ocean surface currents for the time period of 9/25 to 10/7, when the tyre was found. Hoping this will allow us to have a clearer picture of probable locations of Forrest and Donna, and to bring them home to us.

“Thank you all for your love and support,” it added.