PLANE PUZZLE
Bahamas search for N.Y. designer, 3 others
SEARCH CREWS located a debris field Tuesday while hunting for a small plane that vanished near the Bahamas carrying four people — including a well-known New York event space designer and her two sons, officials said.
The discovery was made about 15 miles east of Eleuthera, Bahamas, sometime before 3 p.m. The search for survivors was continuing, the Coast Guard said.
Jennifer Blumin, 40, and her two young sons were heading to Florida from Puerto Rico when the aircraft disappeared from radar about 2:10 p.m. on Monday, officials said.
The twin-engine turboprop plane lost radio contact with the control tower some 37 miles east of Eleuthera, officials said.
The MU-2B plane was bound for Titusville, Fla., after departing Borinquen, P.R., about 11 a.m., officials said.
The plane was being piloted by Blumin’s boyfriend, Nathan Ulrich, 52, an engineer who was married to actress Rae Dawn Chong from 2011 to 2014.
The 56-year-old Chong told the Daily News that she was certain the mishap was caused by an equipment malfunction.
“He’s an excellent pilot. You couldn’t get a better pilot,” said the daughter of famed funnyman Tommy Chong.
“I’ve flown many hundreds of miles with him. It had to be a plane issue.”
Ulrich’s parents only found out about their son’s disappearance from a reporter’s Tuesday afternoon phone call.
“That’s very troubling,” his father, Gael Ulrich, said after learning the news.
In his last radio transmission, Nathan Ulrich said the plane was traveling at an altitude of 24,000 feet at a speed of 300 knots, officials said.
The Coast Guard turned up no sign of the plane Monday while searching the waters between Florida and the Bahamas, officials said.
The air-and-sea search was relaunched early Tuesday with help from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Royal Bahamas Defense Force, officials said.
Four aircraft and two boats were scouring an area of 800 square miles outside the Bahamas, officials said.
“If they are still out there, I hope they find them,” said Sam Wilkinson, who lives near a home Blumin owns in Southold, L.I. “God I hope so.”
Blumin has been the subject of numerous news stories profiling her unique design firm Skylight Studios. She’s known for finding derelict locations in New York City and transforming them into dazzling event spaces. Blumin — who has two sons Phineas, 4, and Theodore, 3, and until recently was living in Tribeca — launched Skylight Studios in 2004.
The New Hampshire-based Ulrich is the founder and coowner of Xootr, a company that manufactures kick scooters and folding bicycles. He’s also the technical director of Radon Sport LLC, a racecar design and manufacturing firm.
“The whole thing is horrible,” Chong said. “I’m in shock.”