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The first memorial services for crew members of the Hamilton-based air ambulance lost off the coast of Nantucket, Mass. earlier this month will begin Friday, as the investigation into the downed aircraft continues.
The U.S. Coast Guard identified the aircraft’s crew, who lived in Southern Ontario, as Captain Philip Gregory Childerhose of Oakville, first officer Thomas Henry Farquhar of Brantford, Niagara nurse Sarah Jane Paton, and respiratory therapist Jolene Beth Weir of Whitby.
They were transporting Bermudians Marilyn Lavonne Bean, 66, and her 41-year-old son, Sergio Wayne Lottimore, the Coast Guard said.
A memorial service for Farquhar of Brantford, Ont. — who grew up in Regina, Sask. — will be held on Friday Oct. 16 at the Hillsdale Baptist Church at 101 Munroe Place in Regina and will be livestreamed on the church’s website, according to an obituary posted to Facebook by Farquhar’s father.
There will also be a memorial service in Ontario at the Shenstone Baptist Church in Brantford on Tuesday Oct. 20, 2026, at 1:30 pm, the post said.
“Tommy was loved by everyone who ever met him,” the post said, describing Farquhar as “a safe place and a helping hand to all.”
The obituary post asks that any emergency services personnel and members of the aviation community attend the memorial in uniform.
It also asks that people consider making a donation to the Tommy Farquhar Aviation Scholarship Fund, which the family created at Prairie College in Alberta, where Farquhar was a graduate of the Prairie Aviation Training Centre in 2023. The fund will support up-and-coming pilots who share his passion for aviation and his commitment to using those skills to help others, the college said.
A memorial service will also be held this weekend for respiratory therapist Jolene Beth Weir of Whitby, Ont.
Last week, the Ontario Nurses’ Association said many will keenly feel the loss of Paton, who worked at the Welland hospital emergency department and then at the Marotta Family Hospital intensive care unit in St. Catharines.
According to her daughter, Mackenzie Weir, her mom had spent the last six years travelling the world to bring patients to medical services they needed.
“She loved her family, her friends, nature, camping, Starbucks, Taylor Swift, a clean house, musical theatre and of course, travelling the world,” she posted on Instagram. “This job was her dream job combining her ability to care for others and see the world, which she did.
“She was a storyteller at heart and wanted to hear everyone’s stories and make sure everyone was always good before ever thinking about herself.”
Weir’s memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 17, at 2 p.m. at Embassy Church at 416 Taunton Road West in Oshawa.
Anyone unable to attend attend in person can also livestream the service.
CBC News has not yet confirmed memorial services for crew members Paton and Captain Childerhose or passengers Marilyn Lavonne Bean and Sergio Wayne Lottimore.
Search for wreckage continues
The search for the wreckage continues, according to Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB), the lead agency investigating the crash.
In an email to CBC News on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the TSB said investigators were in Massachusetts last week and throughout the weekend and the search is ongoing, with the use of ships equipped with sonar and hydrophones.
The search is being coordinated with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board as well as other state authorities, the email said.
The TSB cannot provide a timeline for how long recovery could take.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, a huge area of 11,500 square kilometres off Nantucket was searched starting at 2 a.m. on Oct. 3, after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration told it that air traffic controllers had lost contact with the aircraft.
When the Coast Guard called off the search the following evening, Latitude said it was time to face the “heartbreaking reality” that the crew and passengers had died.
While search teams located a debris field late last Saturday and identified parts of the GulfStream G100 jet, the four crew and two Bermudian passengers have not been found.
Also still missing are the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, known colloquially as the black box, devices which could give investigators insight into what caused the jet to crash into the ocean during the final minutes of its flight from Bermuda to Boston.
