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'We do not believe that there were any survivors': Florida charity on Haiti plane crash

Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald on

Published in News & Features

The head of a Florida-based Christian charity said Friday he doubts anyone survived an airplane crash in Haiti after rescuers searching by helicopters located the wreckage earlier in the day in a mountainous region in the country’s southwest.

The aircraft, operated by Agape Flights and carrying two Americans, was found scattered in pieces along the border between the Grand’Anse and South regional departments, where it dropped off aviation radar Thursday afternoon during bad weather. The area has deep ravines and dense vegetation. An aerial view from a chopper showed mostly footpaths with limited access by road for vehicles.

“We do not believe that there were any survivors,” Allen Speer, CEO of the Christian nonprofit based in Venice, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, said in a video message addressed to “Agape family.” “Our hearts are broken. We grieve deeply for the families of the pilots who are now enduring an unimaginable loss.”

Speer said the nonprofit would not be releasing the names of the pilots or any additional information. He also did not say how many people were aboard the 20-seat aircraft, though sources told the Miami Herald it was just the two pilots, both U.S. citizens. The aircraft dropped off radar sometime after 3 p.m. Thursday as it flew near the mountains of Jérémie, the capital of the Grand’Anse, leading to an extensive search through the night and day before it was finally located in the mountains by helicopters deployed by the Hero Client Rescue company.

“At this time, we do not have information regarding what led to the aircraft’s disappearance,” Speer said, asking for prayers. “What we do know and what we share with you is profound sorrow.”

Hero Client Rescue on Friday launched two helicopters carrying four Haitian SWAT police officers and two medics to search for the aircraft after the plane failed to arrive in Les Cayes after taking off from the Grand’Anse region.

Agape Flights described the aircraft as an Embraer 110 Bandeirante.

 

Agape Flights has been flying to the Caribbean for 46 years, serving more than 300 mission partners throughout the region and helping with relief efforts in times of crisis, including the recent Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica and Cuba. The supplies vary from medicine and food to items like car parts.

“We work to help our mission partners serve the people of the Caribbean in the best way possible. We serve Christ by serving His missionaries,” a spokesperson said.

Haitian authorities reported there was heavy rain in the area during the time the flight was in the air.

The Agape plane was the second aircraft to crash in southern Haiti in the past few days. A chartered aircraft operated by the company Bolt, flying the Port-au-Prince-Les Cayes route, made a forced landing on Tuesday in the locality of Démion near the southwestern city of Les Cayes.

The aircraft was carrying six passengers and no one was injured, the company said in a statement.


©2026 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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