A father and his teenage son flying home to New Jersey from their pre-Christmas vacation at Disney World are missing and presumed dead after their small plane went down off the Florida coast, authorities said Monday.
Peter Renzulli, 51, and his son Daniel, 18, were en route from Orlando back to the Garden State when their single-engine Piper PA-46 Malibu plummeted into the waters off Jacksonville at around 9 a.m. Thursday, according to officials.
A massive search-and-rescue effort — including the Coast Guard, Navy and US Customs and Border Protection, as well as local fire departments — was mounted, but called off Saturday when no trace of the pair could be found.
“The suspension of an active search-and-rescue case is never an easy decision to make,” said Christopher Eddy, of the Coast Guard’s 7th district. “We always want the best-case scenario to happen and will continue to monitor for new information that could aid responders.”
The Coast Guard first got involved in the sea-and-air search Thursday morning when the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center alerted it to a distress call from the Piper, the Coast Guard said.
Renzulli, a CPA and adjunct professor at Rutgers University, and Daniel took off from Kissimmee Gateway Airport near Orlando at around 9 a.m., bound for Princeton, NJ, and, eventually, their Bridgewater home.
Their craft quickly soared to an altitude of more than 22,000 feet before entering a spiral in the skies near Jacksonville about 30 minutes into the trip, according to aviation tracking service FlightAware.com.
Renzulli fired off a mayday call moments before the plane crashed off Ponte Vedra Beach, about 18 miles south of Jacksonville, officials said. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
New Jersey-based aviation attorney Justin Marchetta said, “The family was devastated to learn that the aircraft could not be located.”
Marchetta said Peter had just completed a 30-hour advanced flight course in the Piper.
“Peter and Daniel are accomplished pilots and their disappearance is heartbreaking,” he said.