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Who are Mario and Lili Lamar, Sofia and Christian Sosa? Florida family missing as plane returning from Bahamas vanishes
Mario and Lili Lamar were returning from the Bahamas to Florida, with grandchildren Sofia and Christian Sosa, when their private plane vanished.
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Mario and Lili Lamar were returning from the Bahamas to Florida, along with grandchildren Sofia and Christian Sosa, when their private plane disappeared on Monday, September 7.
The six-seater PA-34 Piper aircraft was headed to Opa-locka, Florida, and had taken off from Great Harbor Cay, when it fell to the water 13 miles west of Andros Island at 2:20pm, as per the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
Mario, 80, was flying the plane, along with his 79-year-old wife, and 28 and 22-year-old grandchildren, as per a Miami Herald report. They had spent Labor Day weekend in their Bahamas home, before tragedy struck.
Silvia Larrieu, Mario and Lili's niece, said "They’ve spent their whole life going there. That’s like their second home. They were coming home.”
Here's all you need to know about Mario and Lili Lamar, and Sofia and Christian Sosa.
Who are Mario and Lili Lamar, and Sofia and Christian Sosa?
The family, in a statement to ABC News, said that Mario is “an experienced pilot with more than 40 years of flying experience.”
Mario reportedly kept the plane in “pristine” shape and also had the required safety gear on board. Meanwhile, Sofia Sosa recently graduated from Wake Forest University. Her brother, Christian, also just graduated from Loyola Marymount University.
As per Sofia's Linkedin, she's a Neonatal Physician Assistant with Kidz Medical in Miami. She's also studied at the Florida International University - Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.
Meanwhile, Christian's LinkedIn notes he's ‘looking for a junior art director role in Los Angeles.’ He's a marketing creative and freelance photographer.
Where are Mario, Lili, Sofia, and Christian now?
The current whereabouts of the Lamars and Sosas remain unknown. A joint search operation involving the U.S. Coast Guard and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force is underway to locate the Florida family.
Sofia had last sent a text on the family group letting them know they were flying home, before the crash. As per FlightAware data, the Piper PA-34 Seneca was last seen on radar around 11am. It showed the plane's speed was rapidly shifting up and down. Then, there was an altitude drop from 10,000 feet to 3,700 feet in just three minutes. The plane's path also looped in a circle, after which further data became unavailable.
Thus far, the search has ‘yielded negative results’, according to an update from the Defence Force. The plane was crossing rough weather near the north end of Andros Island, where the search is concentrated. While Bahamian Forces were blocked from embarking on the search immediately, due to the weather, the Lamars son has now flown out to grab a boat and aid the operation to find his parents and their grandchildren.
