Regina pilot Tommy Farquhar identified among six aboard Latitude Air Ambulance jet presumed crashed off Massachusetts
Why It MattersAir ambulance operations pair dedicated medical crews with aviation staff on single aircraft, so a loss of this kind removes both flight and clinical capacity from the operator at once.
What happened
Tommy Farquhar, a pilot from Regina, has been identified as one of six people aboard a Latitude Air Ambulance jet with call sign Heartbeat 104 that went missing on October 3 and is presumed to have crashed off the coast of Massachusetts. The United States Coast Guard suspended its search the following day after debris from the plane was discovered.
According to Prairie College in Three Hills, Alberta, Latitude Air Ambulance lost four crew members — two aviation and two medical staff — in addition to two passengers aboard the aircraft. Prairie College announced Farquhar's death in a news release, noting that its flight training program, PATC, operates in partnership with and under the leadership of Mission Aviation Fellowship Canada (MAFC).
Prairie College president and CEO Mark L. Maxwell said the loss had "left a hole in many hearts" and offered condolences to Farquhar's wife, Kayla, and to Peter Byl and the team at Latitude Air Ambulance. PATC director Dallas Derksen said Farquhar's "passion for life and joy was evident to everyone around him" and noted that his faith was central to how he approached his work as a pilot. Farquhar enrolled at Prairie College in 2021 to pursue a career in aviation and met his wife Kayla, also an aviation student, there; the college remembered him as a cheerful presence on campus whose musical talents contributed to chapel services. In his memory, the Farquhar family has established the Tommy Farquhar Aviation Scholarship Fund at Prairie College to support aspiring pilots.
Industry impact & what to watch
Air ambulance flights carry a mixed crew of pilots and medical personnel on a single airframe, which means an accident of this kind takes out flight and clinical staffing in the same event rather than spreading the loss across separate operations. That concentration of risk is a structural feature of the sector: a Latitude Air Ambulance aircraft lost two aviation staff and two medical staff together, plus two passengers, in one occurrence.
What happens next depends on findings from the ongoing search-and-recovery effort and any subsequent investigation into the aircraft's loss, neither of which has been reported. Prairie College's PATC program, run with Mission Aviation Fellowship Canada, and Latitude Air Ambulance itself are the two parties most likely to issue further statements as that process continues.
