NYLON – Pilot and Rochester entrepreneur Larry Glazer and his wife Jane were confirmed dead on Friday when their private plane crashed off the coast of Jamaica waters at approximately 2p.m. The U.S. Coast Guard reported that three people were on board.
According to 13WHAM News, F-15 fighter jets were dispatched to follow the unresponsive Socata TBM-700 light business aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NOAD) lost contact with the Glazer at about 10a.m.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that their Air Traffic Controllers tracked a Socata TBM-700 aircraft through U.S. airspace as the pilot stopped responding to radio calls at about 10a.m. Eastern Standard Time. The aircraft flew along the eastern coast of Florida before entering Cuban airspace.
The plane apparently took off Friday morning from Rochester headed to Naples, Florida. The FAA, which routinely coordinates with Cuban air traffic controllers on flights that fly over both countries, said the plane took off from the Greater Rochester International Airport at 8:45a.m., headed for Naples Municipal Airport in Florida.
Officials reported that the pilot was last seen slumped over in the cockpit, the windows frosted. The plane entered Cuban airspace around 1:30 p.m.
A preliminary investigation suggests that the occupants may have become unconscious due to hypoxia, or lack of oxygen, and the plane eventually flew over Florida and Cuba, then ran out of fuel and crashed in Jamaican waters.
Larry Glazer was locally renowned as the founder, CEO, and Managing Partner of Buckingham Properties in Rochester, which has re-developed and adapted hundreds of properties nationally since 1970. According to the Buckingham web site, the company has ownership in more than 300 acres of development property in central Florida.
NYLON West is New York Local Online News, a section of the GeneseeSun.com dedicated to uniting communities outside of Livingston County.
PHOTO: A Socata TBM-700, the make and model of aircraft flown by Larry Glazer. Image from WIKIMEDIA.
NOTE: The GeneseeSun incorrectly reported that Larry Glazer was originally from Nunda, NY.