Published: May 31, 2009 08:31 pm      

SwVa. authorities search for missing plane

CLINTWOOD, Va. — Search teams scoured the mountains around the John W. Flannagan Dam & Reservoir in Dickenson County, Va., on foot Sunday afternoon, after spending much of the day Saturday conducting an aerial search for a downed aircraft.

A pilot, whose name has not yet been released, was flying a single-engine Mooney M-20 aircraft from Elizabethton, Tenn., to Ashland, Ky., when air traffic controllers lost radar contact at about 2:45 p.m., Friday afternoon, according to First Sgt. P.L. Cheek of the Dickenson County Sheriff’s Office.

“A lot of times with a smaller aircraft like that, the pilot doesn’t even file a flight plan,” Cheek said. “He didn’t arrive in Ashland Friday night, but it was Saturday when the family contacted authorities. The Virginia State Police conducted aerial searches on Saturday, and we went in with ground teams (Sunday). With a plane of that size, it is difficult to see it in the trees from the air.”

Cheek said searchers concentrated their efforts Saturday in the area where the plane lost radar contact. “Either the plane wasn’t equipped with an ELD — emergency locating device — or the unit was damaged and could not produce a signal,” Cheek said. “We initiated a ground search based on information we received from possible witnesses who said they observed a plane that was in distress.

“They witnesses didn’t report it at the time because they didn’t realize a plane had gone down,” Cheek said.

Although he did not release the name of the pilot, Cheek said he is “about 55 years old,” and is believed to be the sole occupant of the aircraft. Search teams from as far away as Tazewell County, Va., are participating in the ground search.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com