Pilot survives emergency landing off Boca Raton beach
The hosts of “Fox & Friends” looked back at striking video from August 22 showing 23-year-old pilot Faith Tenkley walking away from a frightening emergency landing in the waters off Boca Raton, Florida. Tenkley managed to steer her single-engine plane clear of swimmers, beachgoers and paddleboarders before making it to shore, a response local officials praised as calm, fast and highly professional.
The U.S. Coast Guard is now assisting in the search for a missing aircraft carrying four members of a Florida family after officials in the Bahamas said the plane is believed to have “crash-landed” in the ocean shortly after leaving Great Harbour Cay.
Family members identified those aboard the PA-34 Piper, a five-seat aircraft bound for Opa-locka, Florida, as 80-year-old pilot Mario Lamar, his 79-year-old wife, Lili, and two of their grandchildren, 28-year-old Sofia Sosa and 22-year-old Christian Sosa, according to the Miami Herald.
“Please help,” Silvia Larrieu, the couple’s niece, told the newspaper as loved ones waited for updates. “I ask anybody out there, if you can help with search and rescue efforts, we would greatly appreciate it. We need to bring them home.”
Larrieu said the family was returning to South Florida after spending Labor Day weekend at a vacation home in Great Harbour Cay, a place she said they had visited throughout their lives. FlightAware data showed the plane dropping from 10,000 feet to 3,700 feet in roughly three minutes before it disappeared from radar.
An aerial view shows Great Harbour Cay in the Bahamas during a flight from Spain to the Caribbean. (NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Larrieu also told the Miami Herald that Mario Lamar was a longtime, experienced pilot who kept the aircraft in what she described as “pristine” condition.
U.S. Coast Guard Southeast said Monday that it was supporting Bahamian authorities after receiving a report of a downed aircraft with “four souls onboard” about 15 miles off Andros Island. The Coast Guard deployed an HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft to aid in the search.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force said it received a report around 2:20 p.m. on Monday “that an aircraft may have gone down in the waters off Red Bays.”
A U.S. Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry medium-range surveillance plane from Air Station Cape Cod flies over the Atlantic Ocean in Newport, R.I., on April 4, 2026. One of these planes has joined the search for the missing aircraft off the coast of the Bahamas. (Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
It added that air traffic control “confirmed that a PA-34 Piper five-seater aircraft, bearing tail number N212ML, departed Great Harbor Cay at approximately 11:12 a.m., en route to Opa-locka, Florida.”
“Air traffic control subsequently lost contact with the aircraft approximately 13 miles west of Andros Island,” the Royal Bahamas Police Force said.
A U.S. Coast Guard aircraft is seen at Opa Locka Executive Airport in Opa Locka, Fla., on July 17, 2021. (REUTERS)
“The Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association (BASRA) advised that the United States Coast Guard had attempted to search the area for the missing aircraft,” police also said. “However, due to inclement weather, the search was postponed until conditions became favorable.”
