Authorities are continuing to search for the man in Florida, 42-year-old Gerardo Nales, who either jumped or fell from a single aircraft that was traveling at 1,800 feet on Thursday.

At 1:30 pm on Thursday, the pilot of a single engine Piper Malibu called air traffic control and reported to the tower after announcing “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, I have a door ajar and I ‘m heading toward Tamiami” that “I have a door ajar and a passenger that fell down.”

The air traffic controller responded to the unusual announcement by the pilot, asking, “You said you’ve got a passenger that fell out of your plane?”

The pilot answered in the affirmative and said, “He opened the back door and he just fell down the plane.”

A helicopter and patrol boat search was immediately initiated to look for the unfortunate passenger by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue as well as the United States Coast Guard. Police said that the man who fell out more than likely did not survive the plummet and called the search a recovery mission.

Investigators have questioned the unidentified 47-year-old pilot about the incident, but are still unsure if the passenger, Nales, fell accidently from the plane or had jumped. Police say they are continuing the “unusual” investigation and have a lot of questions pertaining to why someone would open an aircraft door in mid-flight.

The search continued into the night before being suspended until Friday when the search was espanded to take in the effects of wind and tide.