Mark Allan Nichter, a 50-year-old pediatric intensive care physician from St. Petersburg, Florida, disappeared on December 15, 2009, while flying a Cirrus SR22 single-engine aircraft. He departed Albert Whitted Airport; his last radio contact was at about 9,900 feet while roughly 140 miles southwest of St. Petersburg over the Gulf of Mexico. Radio contact was lost around 4:00 p.m., and neither Nichter nor the plane has been seen since.

The Coast Guard conducted a search covering nearly 1,890 square miles and issued urgent marine broadcasts to alert nearby vessels, but the search was called off after two days with no trace recovered. Investigators presume the aircraft likely crashed into the ocean, but without wreckage or other evidence the circumstances remain unclear and the case remains open. Nichter had worked at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg for about two decades and his disappearance profoundly affected his family and the local medical community.

If anyone saw a small Cirrus SR22 in the Gulf on December 15, 2009, or has information about Nichter’s flight, please come forward.