--- description: An American aircraft whose pilot has been unresponsive for hours was escorted by U.S. military F-15 fighters over the South Atlantic Friday. title: American Plane With Unresponsive Pilot Enters Cuban Airspace image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4b82a994b279104/6986a236f983e770ae04f838/socata-plane1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Aviation](/tag/aviation/) ## Aviation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # American Plane With Unresponsive Pilot Crashes Near Jamaica  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Sep 5, 2014 5:59 PM CUT  A Socata TBM-900 (700N) at Glasgow airport in Scotland on March 14, 2014. A Socata TBM-900 (700N) at Glasgow airport in Scotland on March 14, 2014.Iain Marshall  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Sep 5, 2014 5:59 PM CUT **Updated Saturday 8:07 a.m.** An American aircraft whose pilot had stopped communicating with air traffic controllers for hours crashed near Jamaica on Friday, [officials](https://twitter.com/NoradNorthcom/status/507970445778616320 "undefined") [said](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fighters-scrambled-after-pilot-fails-respond "undefined"). Two people, owner and Rochester businessman Larry Glazer and his wife, Jane Glazer, were aboard the aircraft, their son said. The aircraft crashed about 14 miles off the coast of Jamaica, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The U.S. Coast Guard had launched a search and rescue operation Friday afternoon, and while some presumed the Glazers to be dead, their fate remained unclear to officials. Search teams will continue the search Saturday morning, CNN [reports](http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/06/us/unresponsive-plane-crash/ "undefined"). The aircraft, which departed Rochester, N.Y., en route to Florida on Friday morning, went unresponsive over the southwest Atlantic. U.S. military jets were dispatched by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to escort the aircraft, but the F-15s broke away before the aircraft overflew Cuba. Those aboard the aircraft may have been suffering from hypoxia, NORAD said. Hypoxia can disable pilots and passengers aboard high-flying aircraft that lose cabin pressurization if they don’t engage supplemental oxygen systems before they’re rendered unconscious. Hypoxia can be fatal if supplemental oxygen isn’t administered quickly. Even if the pilot was disabled, the aircraft’s autopilot system may have continued flying on the last heading the pilot set. The F-15 pilots were able to see the smaller plane’s pilot slumped over, officials told [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/05/us/norad-air-threat/index.html?hpt=hp%5Ft1 "undefined"). N900KN’s last heading change before flying over the ocean was a turn over North Carolina. It then proceeded on a straight path towards Cuba, according to data from flight tracking service FlightAware. It flew over Cuba, then proceeded towards Jamaica over the Caribbean Sea, where it likely ran out of fuel before crashing. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3274631/plane-cuba/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3274631/plane-cuba/"},"headline":"American Plane With Unresponsive Pilot Crashes Near Jamaica","datePublished":"2014-09-05T17:59:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:02:12.816Z","description":"The fighters broke away before the aircraft overflew Cuba","url":"https://time.com/3274631/plane-cuba/","keywords":["Aviation","Transportation"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4b82a994b279104/6986a236f983e770ae04f838/socata-plane1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4b82a994b279104/6986a236f983e770ae04f838/socata-plane1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Socata Plane","caption":"Socata Plane","creditText":"Iain Marshall","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/aviation/","name":"Aviation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3274631/plane-cuba/","name":"American Plane With Unresponsive Pilot Crashes Near Jamaica"}}]}] ```