Family recovers all bodies after small plane crash between Bahamas and Miami

After a private plane crashed into the ocean near the Bahamas on Monday morning, a Miami family mounted their own rescue effort to find their four loved ones, rallying civilian boaters and fishers to their aid.

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The passengers —pilot Mario Lamar, 80, his wife Lili Lamar, 79, and two of their grandchildren, 28-year-old Sofia Sosa and 22-year-old Christian Sosa — were headed home to Miami on Monday after a Labor Day weekend spent relaxing at Great Harbour Cay in the Bahamas. They never made it back.

On Tuesday, with Bahamian and U.S. forces still stalling on their search efforts due to bad weather, a search party consisting of Lamar’s sons and grandchildren, pulled their own family members’ bodies from the water.

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Family confirmed that they found their loved ones in the waters near North Andros Island, the last-known location of the small plane that crashed mid-route in a patch of rough weather.

“The search and recovery mission was conducted alongside family members and civilians who answered our call for help. Our relatives ultimately located our loved ones and had to bring them aboard their own vessels,” family spokesperson Silvia Larrieu said in a statement. “We are deeply grateful to everyone who supported us, searched alongside us, and kept our family in their prayers. We respectfully ask for privacy as we mourn this unimaginable loss.”

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The same bad weather that might have contributed to the crash stymied an official search by Bahamian and U.S. officials. The Coast Guard completed at least one sweep via plane on Monday, hours after the crash, but family said the search never resumed.

Tuesday morning, the Royal Bahamian Defence Force confirmed via statement that the search, ”was postponed until conditions became favourable.” The Defence Force did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The family realized that something was wrong around 2 p.m. on Monday, hours after the Lamars and Sosas were supposed to have landed in Miami. They checked the FlightAware data and saw evidence of a crash — a rapid descent from around 10,000 feet to 3,700 feet in just three minutes, a loop and then a flat line of any additional radar information.

The Sosa’s siblings’ father, along with his two other sons and an uncle, all set off to the Bahamas immediately on Monday afternoon to start searching themselves via boat. By Tuesday morning, they found all of their relatives.

Now, Larrieu said in her statement, they are working with the Coast Guard to “bring our loved ones home safely and with dignity.”

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This story was originally published September 8, 2026 at 10:34 AM.