Couple who crashed off Jamaica 'can't be replaced,' colleagues say

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP)

Rescue crews searching off Jamaica's coast on Saturday said they could no longer see debris spotted earlier, stymieing efforts to solve the mystery surrounding a small plane carrying a prominent upstate New York couple that went on a ghostly 1,700-mile journey after the pilot was apparently incapacitated.

Jamaican officials said that possible wreckage from the single-engine turboprop Socata TBM700 was sighted Friday evening by a military aircraft flying off the island's northeast coast, drifting roughly 24 miles (38 kilometers) off the coastal town of Port Antonio.

The island's military said in a statement that Jamaican and U.S. officials felt the sighting was "consistent with that of a high-impact debris field."

But on Saturday Jamaica Coast Guard Commander Antonette Wemyss-Gorman said that the pieces of floating debris could no longer be seen.

"We would have to assume it may have sunk," she said.

The area where the private French-made plane went down has depths of up to 2,000 meters (more than 6,500 feet), according to Leroy Lindsay, director general of Jamaica's civil aviation authority.

Lindsay said that French authorities have volunteered to provide help to bring wreckage up from the ocean depths when it is found.

The plane was carrying Rochester real estate developer Laurence Glazer and his entrepreneur wife, Jane - both experienced pilots. On Friday, U.S. fighter pilots were launched to shadow the unresponsive aircraft observed the pilot slumped over and its windows frosting over. Officials say the plane slammed into the sea when it ran out of fuel at least 14 miles (22 kilometers) off Jamaica's northeast coastline.

In a Friday statement, the Coast Guard 7th District command center in Miami said three people were reportedly on board the plane. A 154-foot (47-meter) U.S. Coast Guard cutter and a helicopter crew are aiding in the Saturday search off Jamaica.

Son Rick Glazer said he could not confirm his parents were killed, adding that "we know so little."

But public officials offered their condolences for a prominent couple described as a linchpin in efforts to rejuvenate an upstate New York city stung by the decline of corporate giants Kodak, Bausch & Lomb and Xerox.

Laurence Glazer co-founded Buckingham Properties and served as chief executive and managing partner, working alongside two sons. Overall, the company owns more than 60 properties in the Rochester area and in central Florida.

His friend Harold Samoff said Saturday that he and Glazer got started in the real estate business in 1970 with a small apartment building, then went on to acquire and revitalize more and bigger properties on the inner-city periphery, reasoning that "just like blight can spread, improvement can spread, also."

Glazer went on to more complex projects, such as converting former industrial properties into loft apartments and turning a shuttered hospital into offices. More recently, he bought Xerox Corp.'s Rochester tower - the city's tallest - and Bausch & Lomb's building.

Jane Glazer started QCI Direct, which produces two national retail catalogs selling household and other products. It made Rochester's Top 100 list of fastest growing privately held companies last year, according to its website.

"It's beyond tragic here. We're reeling," Rochester Downtown Development Corp. President Heidi Zimmer-Meyer said, calling the couple "people who just cannot be replaced."