KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent — Authorities from St. Vincent and the Grenadines announced Monday that the Dominican-registered aircraft that vanished over the Southern Caribbean during a flight to Tobago over the weekend has been successfully located, with all people on board confirmed alive. Deputy Prime Minister and National Security Minister St. Clair Leacock shared the update during a public radio interview, confirming that coordinated search efforts by international, regional, and local security agencies led to the discovery of the twin-engine plane. However, he declined to disclose the exact site where the aircraft was found.
According to an official statement released by the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Sustainable Development, the aircraft, a Beechcraft B58T or 58P Pressurized Baron registered as HI-1145, departed Argyle International Airport in St. Vincent at 11:52 a.m. local time this past Friday. Two people were on board when the plane took off, and it was scheduled to complete its 65-minute flight and land at ANR Robinson International Airport in Tobago shortly after departure.
Leacock told radio listeners that he had maintained constant communication with local police leadership and key regional security bodies throughout the search operation. These partners included the Barbados-headquartered Regional Security System (RSS) and the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (Impacs), a security arm of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) based in Trinidad. He confirmed that authorities have already compiled identifying information on the people connected to the missing flight, but stated that “I cannot share all of the information that we have on it.”
The senior official explained that disclosing sensitive operational details at this stage could put ongoing investigative work by participating agencies at risk. He added that intelligence and security teams are continuing to closely monitor the situation to determine next steps. Notably, Leacock emphasized that authorities are prioritizing the people on the aircraft rather than the plane itself, noting “aircraft don’t fly [by] itself — [it is] the people who fly in that aircraft” that are the central focus of the ongoing operation, as officials work to determine an appropriate course of action moving forward.
Before all contact with the plane was lost, it was being tracked via the popular public flight monitoring platform Flightradar24. Data from the site showed the aircraft was operating under visual flight rules, cruising at an altitude of 4,025 feet with a ground speed of 142 knots. Tracking signals cut off abruptly mid-flight over the Southern Caribbean Sea, with the last known signal placing the aircraft in the vicinity of Grenadian or Venezuelan territorial waters.