Missing Aircraft

Written by Eric Holden

RMRU received a callout for a possible ELT (Electronic Locator Transmitter) hit on plane that had been missing since May 28th while in route from Catalina to Van Nuys. The hit was someplace near Santiago peak. Ray, Tony and myself headed out there via the North Main Divide Truck trail. After navigating some pretty bad roads, we reached the area of the suspected hit. We used our handheld ELT devices and found no signals. We did get lots of cross talk from the radio towers on Santiago Peak. We drove to a lookout point that had a good view of the possible hit and noticed and area that had some down trees. Light was fading and it was decided we would come back during the day. That evening we got a callout to assist with a search in the Pinyon Pines area that would last 5 days delaying our return to the site.

On the June 13th we were able to drive back up to the area with the down trees. While Cameron worked the radios, Tony and myself bushwhacked to the site and found that it was from an old lightning strike and not a plane crash. We returned back home and the plane still remains missing.

RMRU Members Involved: Eric Holden, Tony Hughes, and Ray Weden.