Members of Colorado's Civil Air Patrol are searching for an overdue plane that left from Erie for Richfield, Utah on Monday morning.
The lone pilot took off aboard his Cessna 210 single-engine plane Monday at 8 a.m. and was reported missing to the Air Force at 7:15 that night, according to Major Mike Fassi with Civil Air Patrol.
Fassi says the Air Force told air patrol to wait until Tuesday morning to send planes out to search for the missing pilot and his aircraft.
Nine aircraft searched for the missing pilot on Tuesday and covered 120 miles doing so.
The pilot hadn't submitted a flight plan, something Fassi says isn't mandatory but definitely would have helped in an emergency situation like this. Also in the flight plan would have been a weather report, something that would also help search and rescue operations.
The air patrol doesn't know what route the pilot could have taken, so their planes first searched a straight line from Erie to Richfield, Fassi says. After that, they began to search in grids, since the pilot could have deviated from the direct route in any number of ways.
At this time, Fassi says he can't release a plane number or the name of the missing pilot. He also couldn't say if the pilot was from Colorado or what his potential training might have been.
It's been tough going so far - Civil Air Patrol planes are searching rocky terrain and the snow and high winds aren't helping. Planes can't be out searching at night - especially on mountain terrain.
"Snow and weather this time of year is always difficult and the high winds [Tuesday] made it very difficult for the crews," Fassi says.
Ground teams are also being assembled to help out.
Updates are expected to this story.
