Missing Plane in Western Wyoming

[A.Member]

There is no mention of CAP in the following articles:

No Luck Tracking Signal From Plane Missing in Wyo.

Wyoming searchers hope to find missing plane's beacon

Curious if this omission is simply a matter of reporting or another example where local relationships have not been developed? 

Plane went missing earlier this week.  Doesn't sound like it may be a good ground team mission but seems aircrew would be valuable to their search; latest report indicate they may have an ELT signal. 

Anyone have additional information about involvement?  Nothing on the National page.

[sardak]

Wyoming Wing has been flying sorties on this mission.

Mike

[A.Member]

Wyoming Wing has been flying sorties on this mission.

Mike

Thanks.

Some additional searching did turn up this article:
Search continues for missing plane in Wyoming

Good luck to those search crews.

[Fubar]

The news is now reporting there is a signal being picked up, but they can't locate the source. I can only imagine how tough it is to DF in the mountains.

CAP started flying sorties on Thursday. The search started on Monday.

[a2capt]

"The Mooney 20J took off from the Jackson airport in a snowstorm on Oct. 25 and disappeared from radar about an hour later"

Snowstorm?

[PHall]

"The Mooney 20J took off from the Jackson airport in a snowstorm on Oct. 25 and disappeared from radar about an hour later"

Snowstorm?

Yeah, snowstorm. Winter comes early to the high country.

[a2capt]

But.. a snowstorm, in a Mooney, with your (little) kids? - Ugh.

[DakRadz]

But.. a snowstorm, in a Mooney, with your (little) kids? - Ugh.

Things like this brought out the Army in my old Chaplain's speech... This happened a few years back, I think in AL (the incident my Ch. referenced one day, I'm sure this scenario isn't new, unfortunately....)

[Smithsonia]

I've lost 2 friends in that same area. Then President Clinton's Support C-130 crash nearby 15 years ago.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/CLINTON+SUPPORT+PLANE+CRASHES+IN+WYOMING+PRESIDENT+AND+FAMILY+IN...-a065033831
The President's planes have the best of everything including crews.

Tough weather area. As you climb out of Jackson and head toward the mountains... the weather you will fly into is both invisible (hidden by the mountains) and perhaps unreported (as I don't believe there is a constantly manned weather station in that area.

So - I got in the habit of circling up and perhaps flying towards Cody (low route) before I headed south to Denver. I've been a little surprised more than once around Jackson. 

[jeders]

I've lost 2 friends in that same area. Then President Clinton's Support C-130 crash nearby 15 years ago.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/CLINTON+SUPPORT+PLANE+CRASHES+IN+WYOMING+PRESIDENT+AND+FAMILY+IN...-a065033831
The President's planes have the best of everything including crews.

Tough weather area. As you climb out of Jackson and head toward the mountains... the weather you will fly into is both invisible (hidden by the mountains) and perhaps unreported (as I don't believe there is a constantly manned weather station in that area.

So - I got in the habit of circling up and perhaps flying towards Cody (low route) before I headed south to Denver. I've been a little surprised more than once around Jackson.

One of the guys in our squadron used to be an 8th Air Force crash investigator and used that crash for a safety briefing a couple years ago. The real problem was that it wasn't the best crew. My understanding is that the crash really came down to poor command and poor training at higher levels.

Also the fact that they made a remark about how they were climbing but their radar altimeter was dropping, and they kept flying without changing direction or rate of climb.

[Smithsonia]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
jeders;
I hadn't heard the investigation results. I was indicating that Jackson's Hole is called that for a reason. If you can't climb straight out... and get in too tight... trouble ensues.

Also coming down from over the mountains and trying to make a straight in landing is tough, particularly at night in bad weather. The downhill run causes over shoots of the field and makes decision cycles speed up too. Sandra Bullock's plane landed on a taxiway because her pilots weren't ready and got behind on the procedures. http://www.airsafe.com/events/celebs/bullock.htm

If I remember, they couldn't find the landing lights freq and kept going in the dark... then unfortunately picked the wrong snow drifted piece of asphalt.

Jackson can be tough no matter if you're going in or out, particularly on a bad weather day...

[jeders]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
jeders;
I hadn't heard the investigation results. I was indicating that Jackson's Hole is called that for a reason. If you can't climb straight out... and get in too tight... trouble ensues.

Oh I understand about it being Jackson's Hole. And actually if they had done what you had said, circle up or fly the low route towards Cody, they would've likely been fine. I'm just glad I'm in West Texas where it's mostly flat.

[sardak]

The search area is about 55 nm SE of Jackson around Gannett Peak, the highest point in Wyoming.

The family has set up a website with the logos of all the search agenices to thank them and for people to leave comments.
http://thanks.lukeandginger.com/index

The From this morning's media reports:
****
Strategy being reassessed in search for missing plane

Authorities are huddling Monday to contemplate their next steps in the so-far fruitless search for a Minneapolis man and his three sons whose small airplane disappeared a week ago over the rugged mountains of western Wyoming.
http://www.startribune.com/local/106444163.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU7DYaGEP7vDEh7P:DiUs
**********
Luke Bucklin searchers plan second week as plane still missing

Wyoming authorities on Monday said they're planning the second week of the search for Sierra Bravo Corp. CEO Luke Bucklin and the plane in which he was flying his three sons home.

Ground search crews, hampered by bad weather and of the remoteness of the nine-square-mile area of the Wind River mountain range, have been unable to locate the source of an emergency signal, which may have been activated manually or automatically triggered by a crash.

The Fremont County Sheriff's Department said it would lay out the "next steps and search strategy from this point on" in a Monday morning news release.
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2010/11/01/luke-bucklin-searchers-plan-second.html
*************
This is a tough one.

Mike

[Smithsonia]

Here's a look at the Mt. Gannett territory. It is formidable: http://www.summitpost.org/gannett-peak/150362

[sardak]

Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Contact: IC Public Information Officer Ernie Over, 307-349-0794
09:00 AM MT
UPDATE: Searchers find missing aircraft

(Lander, WY) – Fremont County Sheriff Skip Hornecker confirmed the wreckage of a single-engine fixed-wing aircraft was found late Monday in the primary search area east of the Continental Divide. Searchers on the scene reported there were no survivors. The crash site was found approximately one mile east of the aircraft's last known location near Indian Pass at an elevation of about 11,100 feet early this evening, Nov. 1, 2010.

Four members of a Minnesota family were on board. [Luke (dad, 40), and sons Nate and Nick, 14, and Noah, 12.]
********
No details on how the crash was located.

Mike