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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) -- A Louisville man disappeared while flying to the Bahamas.
Chris Moore, 59, of east Louisville, was flying a single-engine Bristell plane on Sunday. Moore took off from Sebastian Florida, around 9 a.m.
His last communications were around 11 a.m., and visuals from Flight Aware show his path ended in the water near Grand Bahama.
Both the U.S. and Bahama officials have suspended their search, but friends and family say they aren't giving up.
"We're still hopeful he's alive," Cam Hitchcock, Moore's friend, told CNN.
Hitchcock said Moore bought four planes and is rebuilding an entire plane at his house in Louisville.
"It was more than a hobby. It was a passion," Hitchcock said, adding, "He's my best friend and I hope to fly with him again."
Speaking to WLKY from the Bahamas, Moore's wife said Hitchcock had been by their side from the start.
"He actually was the one that physically went and found the logs of who came into Marsh Harbor (airport) around the time my husband would have landed. And he was the one that investigated those 3 planes that came in about the same time my husband should have arrived to discover he had radioed in 5 miles out," Stacye Love said, adding other pilots, many of them strangers, had reached out to offer assistance.
Love said her husband had made the very trip to the Bahamas 20-30 times and, "He's a very experienced pilot. He's also incredibly knowledgeable from a mechanical standpoint."
Love, who is working with officials in the U.S. and in the Bahamas in hopes of additional searches is remaining optimistic.
When asked if she still has hope she responded, "Of course I do, until we have the wreckage we don’t have an answer. And we’re going to press until we have an answer and press until we have Chris."
A spokesperson for Senator Mitch McConnell tells WLKY, the office, "...continues to be in contact with the family. The office has contacted the State Department on their behalf, as well as U.S. Embassy officials in Nassau."
