Jennifer Blumin, NYC Designer, Aboard Plane That Vanished In Bermuda Triangle

TRIBECA, NY — A famous local event space designer and her two small kids have been identified by the U.S. Coast Guard as three of four people aboard a private plane that vanished Monday in the Bermuda Triangle while traveling from Puerto Rico to Florida.

They still hadn't been located by Thursday evening Eastern Time.

Jennifer Blumin, 40, and her 4-year-old and 3-year-old sons, as well as New Hampshire resident Nathan Ulrich, 52 — reported to be Blumin's boyfriend — were aboard the missing plane, the Coast Guard said. Ulrich's Instagram account shows they may have all taken a trip to Puerto Rico for Mother's Day.

On Tuesday afternoon, a Coast Guard helicopter search team had spotted a "debris field" and "fuel slick" in the water around 15 miles east of the Eleuthera island of the Bahamas — 20 miles from the plane's last known coordinates, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

The helicopter crew was able to lower a rescue swimmer and retrieve some of the debris to transfer ashore for identification. Some airplane components recovered from the debris were confirmed to be from an MU-2B airplane, the same type of plane that went missing, the Coast Guard spokesman said.

"We believe it to be the same plane," he said. "We have confirmed that those are parts of the type of aircraft that is missing. We haven't found anything yet, though, that specifically identifies it as the missing plane."

The search continued into Thursday night for possible survivors. Customs and Border Patrol and the Royal Bahamas Defense Force were assisting.

Blumin is an event space designer and New York Fashion Week mainstay whose firm, Skylight Studios, tailors venues to the needs of major clients like Ralph Lauren and Kanye West. She is known for transforming derelict old buildings into "dazzling event spaces," according to the New York Daily News.

The job is like being an “urban Indiana Jones,” Blumin told a local style blog in 2015, in an interview at the Tribeca loft she shared on White Street with then-husband James Ramsey and their kids, Phineas and Theodore. “I go into these disgusting, forgotten, covered-in-dust spaces — places where no one has been in decades. But that’s where you find the coolest stuff.”

Ramsey is the founder of RAAD, the design firm behind the Lowline on the Lower East Side. The couple's renovated Tribeca home was also featured in the New York Times and other news outlets. (NBC video here.)

“I lost what I loved more than anything,” Ramsey told the Daily News on Wednesday. “I keep hoping it’s not real and I'll wake up. Wouldn't wish this pain on the worst person in the world.”

Blumin lists herself on Facebook as a graduate of Cornell University.

Ulrich, her reported boyfriend, is a co-founder of Xootr, another NYC-based company that manufactures scooters and folding bicycles. He's also listed online as a technical director and race-car designer for Radon Sport.

The couple's MU-2B airplane took off from Borinquen, Puerto Rico, at approximately 11 a.m. Monday, according to the Coast Guard.

By 2:10 p.m., the Coast Guard received a report from Miami Air Traffic Control that it had lost radar and radio contact with the plane when it was approximately 37 miles east of Eleuthera, traveling at 24,000 feet with a speed of 300 knots.

The 10-seat plane is reportedly registered to the same address in Southold, Long Island, where Blumin and Ramsey, her ex-husband, own a home on Waterview Drive.

A Patch reporter visited their Long Island home on Tuesday. Colorful, deflated beach balls and a child's tricycle sat alongside a covered pool and two vehicles — one a truck with New Hampshire plates and the other a Jeep with New York plates.

Across the street, neighbor Laurie Staron was shocked to hear the plane was missing. "It's horrible," she said. "Very sad."

Further along the road, neighbor Dan O'Connell said he'd seen Blumin with her two small boys on the street. "It's terrible," he said.

A third neighbor who did not give her name said Blumin and the boys used to stop by her property to feed her horse apples and carrots. "She's a really pretty woman with a contagious smile," the neighbor said of Blumin. "I remember the first day we met; she was so nice."

The neighbor said she often heard the youngsters laughing as they played in their yard. Now, she said, "It's too quiet."

Paula DiDonato, owner of the Giving Room, a yoga studio in Southold, called Blumin "a loved and valued client."

"She has a beautiful Pilates practice and a spirit that lights up the room when she enters," DiDonato said. "We are blessed by her presence and pray for the safe return of Jennifer and her children. I am really so sad. She truly is a larger-the-life type of person, who seemed to embrace living with great passion. I just can't believe she could be lost."

Dave Kapell, a realtor, said he sold Blumin her house in Southold.

Kapell remembered that Blumin's key criterion for choosing a home was whether or not there were razor clams to collect nearby. "When we brought her to Waterview Drive," he said, "she took off her shoes, rolled up her pants, waded into the mud, found razor clams in Goose Creek — and bought the property."

This is a developing story. Refresh the page for updates.

Lead photo via Wikimedia Commons. With reporting by Lisa Finn/Patch