Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in Jamaica since 1982 on Wednesday -- and made some time for the late reggae legend Bob Marley.

On arrival, Obama descended from Air Force One to greet a long line of people including Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, whom he embraced.

Barack Obama will make his first presidential visit to Jamaica in April, a trip expected to focus on strengthening security in the Caribbean.

The White House said Wednesday that Obama would visit the island nation to meet leaders of the Caribbean bloc CARICOM. 

The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its search for the plane carrying a prominent upstate New York entrepreneur couple that crashed off the coast of Jamaica after a mysterious "ghost" flight.

At least two people were killed when a small plane crashed off the coast of Jamaica in an incident that prompted coordination between longtime foes Cuba and the United States.

The seven-seater aircraft took off from the northeastern United States and flew south over Cuba and across the Caribbean on Friday, ignoring calls from air traffic control with its pilot, according to reports, unconscious in the cockpit.

A small U.S. plane crashed in waters off Jamaica on Friday after flying for hours with an unresponsive pilot, for a while trailed by U.S. fighter aircraft, aviation officials said.

The plane went down 14 miles (22 kilometers) north of Port Antonio on the northeast coast of the island, a Jamaican official told Agence France-Presse, adding that "search and rescue operations are underway."

Hurricane Sandy pounded the Bahamas on Thursday as it careened toward the eastern United States after claiming 21 lives in the Caribbean, including 11 people killed in eastern Cuba.

The hurricane -- now a category two storm -- has wreaked havoc in Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas and Haiti, downing power lines, damaging hundreds of homes and ruining crops.