87-year-old Florida man is pilot missing off Boca Raton, Coast Guard says

BOCA RATON — The U.S. Coast Guard is continuing to search for the 87-year-old pilot of a single-engine Lanclair 320 plane that went missing off the coast of Boca Raton.

Officials on Sunday identified the pilot as Brendan Spratt. Spratt’s family provided the Coast Guard with photos, which the Coast Guard posted on their Twitter account.

“We have not found anything and we are still searching,” Petty Officer Jose Hernandez, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, told the South Florida SunSentinel on Sunday. Hernandez said they hope that posting photos of Spratt could help someone identify him if they see him.

The plane had a least one person on board when it went missing shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Friday southeast of Boca Raton, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The Coast Guard and other search and rescue authorities were notified.

Spratt’s son, Brendan Sean Spratt, told the newspaper his father is a marathon runner and has been flying most of his life.

The elder Spratt was visiting friends near Daytona Beach last week and talked to his son on Tuesday, Brendan Sean Spratt told the newspaper. The father was scheduled to return to Boca Raton around noon on Wednesday.

The son tried calling his father later in the week, but it went straight to voicemail. He told the newspaper he went to his father’s house but he wan’t there. His plane wasn’t at the hangar at the hangar at the Boca Raton Airport.

“His plane wasn’t there and his car was there, so he hadn’t returned,” the son said.