24th December 2009

On December 24, 2009, Travis and his cousin Bancroft Nyack were flying to Grenada for Christmas, from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport , Florida . They both planned to be home for the holidays, to spend time with family. Travis had only months ago fulfilled his dream of becoming an aircraft owner, and he was ecstatic about his new acquisition - a Piper Aztec N2484R. While in the cockpit preparing for the flight, he spoke to his sister Shadel from Grenada , who wished them a safe journey home, and reminded him to call their mum as soon as he could. It was Christmas eve - her birthday!

At 8:00:00 EST. the two took off, soaring into the airspace over Fort Lauderdale , Miami , and on to the Bahamas . The flight was beautiful. One can't help but imagine the exuberance of these two gutsy Grenadian guys, as they professionally navigated their way home, whilst basking in the magnificence and beauty of the Bahamas archipelago sprawling below.

Their first stop for re-fueling, was scheduled for about 11:00 a.m. at Provedentiales , in the Turks and Caicos islands . However, at about 10:38:00 EST they reported that their left engine had stopped and they were trying to restart. At that point they estimated to have had two more hours of fuel available and were able to stabilize the aircraft, maintaining an altitude of 6,000 feet.

They managed to get the left engine restarted, but unfortunately at 10:56:38 EST they lost both engines at an estimated 25 miles NW of Mayaguanma in the South Eastern Bahamas. By 11:11:11 EST they had reportedly dropped to 2000 ft, and were descending at a rate of 1200fpm. During that time, ( with such low altitude ) they maintained contact with Air Traffic Control - Miami Center by relaying via a Jet Blue pilot, a continental pilot, and lastly, through a pilot of a private falcon jet. These pilots unanimously commented on how incredibly calm, composed and collected Bancroft and Travis were all during that time.

At 11:12:10 Travis reported to the Falcon pilot that they wouldn't make land and that he was gliding to the Plana Cays. The last communication from the Falcon pilot at 11:11:57 EST was a somber “Good luck, guys!” At 11: 1:40 EST the flight ditched.

Miami Flight Center and the Air Traffic Control Bahamas informed the United States Coastguard of the downed aircraft, and they arrived at the estimated site in about 50 minutes. The USCG 7 th District utilizing a Falcon jet, Jayhawk helicopter and Hercules fixed wing aircraft searched for twelve and a half hours on that day, with no positive results. Neither Travis, Bancroft nor the aircraft were found.