Mystery over lost Caribbean plane

A search is continuing for a plane that disappeared in mysterious circumstances after leaving the Dominican Republic with 12 people on board.

Officials say the plane vanished from radar screens near the Turks and Caicos Islands on Monday after a mayday call.

It was believed to be flying to the islands, but some reports say it was headed for the Bahamas or New York.

Meanwhile, the aircraft's owner says it was stolen and there are reports that the pilot was unlicensed.

The Britten-Norman Islander aircraft is registered to Luis Perez, of Puerto Rico, who owns the company Linea Aerea Puertorriquena.

He told the AP news agency that the plane was for sale and that he had hired a trusted pilot to fly it to the Dominican Republic to have it inspected.

He said that he planned to report it as stolen but did not suggest that the missing pilot was involved.

The pilot has been named as Adrian Jimenez, of the Dominican Republic.

Licence 'revoked'

Dominican Pilots Association president Pedro Dominguez said Mr Jimenez's licence was revoked in October 2006 and he was not authorised to fly.

However, the Dominican Today online news service quoted a source close to the inquiry as saying that Mr Jimenez was a student pilot who did not have a commercial rating required to fly the plane.

It is also not clear where the plane was headed after it left Cibao International Airport in Santiago on Monday afternoon.

A flight plan indicated it was to land in the Bahamas, said Santiago Rosa, aerial navigation director for the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute.

But the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the plane disappeared shortly after taking off from Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands, south-east of the Bahamas.

A Turks and Caicos police spokesman said airport authorities had no record of the plane landing in Providenciales.

US Coast Guard Petty Officer Barry Bena said that relatives of those on board had said the passengers' final destination was New York.

FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said: "There are still a lot of unanswered questions here."

The US Coast Guard said bad weather was making the sea search - in an area west of the Turks and Caicos Islands - difficult.

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