Forrest Sanco and his wife Donna.
'I'm just praying they are found safe'
The missing couple were heading to Rum Cay to rent a holiday home from Pat and Earl Lambert.
Their son Greg had been been dealing direct with Forrest Sanco.
“He contacted me a few months ago looking for a remote place for a wedding and honeymoon,” Greg told The Tribune.
“I told him how to get to Rum Cum, basically how to charter or fly. He told me that at one time he had been a pilot but had not flown for a number of years.
“He expressed an interest in flying down himself. He seemed to have some experience. He had purchased a plane and was going to get an instructor to give him lessons to bring him back upto speed.
“I said, ‘Take your time. This is not our busy season. I said most people go in the winter because of the hurricane season.”
Greg continued: “A while later he got back in touch and said he had his pilot’s licence recertified and had the plane checked out.
“We talked about a route and he flew from Texas to Fort Pierce in Florida where most people flying to the Bahamas set off from.
“Later he landed in Fort Pierce and had a few repairs done to the plane, not major, just $160 worth.
“He was kind of vague about his plans saying he may head straight to Rum Cay or stay in Freeport a few days when he got there.
“The last time I spoke to him personally was on September 25 in the afternoon when he said , ‘I am headed to Freeport and will figure out what I am going to do from there.
“I told him to take his time, not to do anything he wasn’t comfortable with. He asked me my own route to Rum Cay and I told him he’d have to make a series of island stops as his plane would needed to be refulled enroute.
“After that I didn’t hear back from him. I started trying to contact him on the 26th to ask him what his plans were.
“The phone was going straight to voice mail. At that point I was a little annoyed as we had a guest coming who had not given a specific time of day for their arrival so we’d be looking out for them all the time.
“I was thinking he was just spending a few more days in Freeport.
“After five days was when I started to become a little concerned and started looking back through my records but still continually leaving him messages. I just wanted to know he was okay.
“Finally his family started looking and posted a message on the Rum Cay community page on Facebook.”
Someone on the island guessed who the couple were planning to rent from and contacted Greg who in turn rang Forrest Sanco’s niece in the US.
Greg started making inquiries with people in Freeport and after much searching Greg was able to confirm Sanco flew from Freeport to North Eleuthera on the 26th and was last seen around 2.30pm when he refuelled the aircraft and took off.
“If he was heading for Rum Cay he should have made it in about two hours,” said Greg.
“He did have a cell phone and GPS navigation.
“If he had followed the proper course on the GPS that would have taken him over the rest of the Eleuthera chain, a bit of ocean then just to the east of Conception and then on to Rum Cay.
“The area that needs to be searched most is Conception as that’s the only place to land and not been seen, unless of course he’s ditched in the ocean.
“I am just praying they are found safe but I am discouraged about how long it has been,” said Greg.
By RICARDO WELLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
rwells@tribunemedia.net
THE family of an American couple booked to honeymoon in the Bahamas last month have launched a social media campaign to find them after more than two weeks with no contact.
LeeAnn Burger, 23, said her uncle Forrest Sanco and his wife Donna, travelled from Florida on board a Cessna 150-N3214X en route to the Bahamas on September 25.
The pair never turned up for their Rum Cay honeymoon, and now Ms Burger is trying to raise $10,000 through a Go Fund Me campaign to hire private crews and pilots to find them.
The native of Houston, Texas, claimed the pair landed in Grand Bahama on the same day, where they cleared customs and spent the night.
Ms Burger said the couple reportedly left Grand Bahama en route to Rum Cay on September 26 where they had rented a home for the week.
However, she said the pair never arrived, with last contact coming in North Eleuthera where the couple had stopped for fuel.
A Facebook page for the Rum Cay Community asked anyone with information about the Argyle, Texas couple to contact the page. One of the comments on that post suggested the pair did leave North Eleuthera around 2:30pm, September 26.
In an interview with The Tribune Monday, Ms Burger said attempts to connect with Bahamian authorities proved fruitless, with any insight into the disappearance being provided by American authorities.
She said: “We’re trying, the best way we know how to determine what happened in this case.”
“As far as we are aware, they were going to the Bahamas for their honeymoon and the last place they made contact was in Eleuthera. We want to determine what happened to them there or after they left,” Ms Burger added.
She later indicated the family had lodged cases with both the United States Embassy in New Providence and Royal Bahamas Police Force last Friday.
Ms Burger said representatives from both agencies told her that they would “look into it.”
Both the RBPF and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force said their agencies were exploring inquires on the matter up to press time Monday.
Comments
John 7 years, 2 months ago
If you remember the weather was still pretty bad down south around the time the couple went missing. Still a lot of wind gusts and heavy rain. Not only conditions to down a small aircraft but to easily get it off course and then lost. Especially with little experience and not being familiar with the area.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 2 months ago
Who in their right mind would pilot a small Cessna 150 from the Houston Texas area to Rum Cay in the Bahamas? The trip would take forever in such a slow plane with umpteen refueling stops along the way! Think of all the lousy weather we've had since September 25 with hurricanes whizzing around us....and he was an unexperienced pilot to boot!! There's more going on here than has been reported.
TheMadHatter 7 years, 2 months ago
Ive always said, people can take a crash course in many subjects. Flying is not one of them.
licks2 7 years, 2 months ago
Did we had a lost plane a few months ago in that area or rout. . .with another armature pilot. . .female. . .never found any sight of that family with the rich mother at the controls! We have many smaller planes all around us. . .people can fly themselves and the area is soooooooooo beautiful! I do youtube ride-along with them through the Bahamas all the time. . .it is so awesome up there. . .over our majestic and alluring water and skies!
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