Wreckage Of Plane Carrying New Rochelle Woman Found At Sea

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — It appears that a couple's weekend flight from Fort Lauderdale to Key West has ended in tragedy. Now, the New Rochelle family of a woman who went missing when the single engine plane disappeared is asking why rescue efforts didn't begin until nearly two days after the private aircraft failed to arrive at its destination.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it started searching for two people who were onboard the Vans RV-12 plane on Tuesday of last week, soon after being informed that the private plane never arrived at its scheduled destination the previous Sunday.

Family members told South Florida NBC-affiliate WTVJ that the two people on the plane were New Rochelle native Ali Tufo and her boyfriend Tommy Campana.

SEE ALSO: Family Pleading For Answers After Small Plane Goes Missing Off Key West

Tufo's sister Lana Tufo told the station that Campana received his pilot's license around a year ago and was the plane's owner. She said the two went missing on Sunday of last week but said the Coast Guard wasn't alerted until Tuesday.

"It's just, the whole thing's kind of surreal to me," Lana Tufo told NBC News. "We're looking for answers and I want to know kind of what went wrong because I feel like this could have been prevented."

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search for survivors shortly after wreckage from a plane crash was found in the Atlantic late Tuesday.

Divers from the Monroe County Florida Sheriff’s Office recovered two pieces of a plane on the ocean floor, approximately 15 miles north of Big Pine Key, according to a report from CBS 4 Miami. The tail number matched that of Campana's plane.

Severe weather was reported at the time the plane disappeared from radar. Here in New Rochelle, family members said many questions remain unanswered, primarily why family and rescuers were not informed the plane was missing for more than two full days .

"I don’t understand," Tufo's cousin Samantha Tufo told Miami's Local 10 News. "Did he go down that fast that he couldn’t report it? As of right now, what we know is our cousin’s plane crashed and she’s somewhere in the water."