Search efforts continued Wednesday for a Hollister man and his
passenger who vanished late Tuesday morning while flying a
Czechoslovakian fighter-trainer jet airplane over the Cascade
mountain range during an early season storm.
Seattle – Search efforts continued Wednesday for a Hollister man and his passenger who vanished late Tuesday morning while flying a Czechoslovakian fighter-trainer jet airplane over the Cascade mountain range during an early season storm.
Rocky Stewart, of Hollister, and another unknown man were en route to Lewiston, Idaho in a single-engine L-39 when they reported flight-control problems before disappearing from radar and losing radio contact shortly before noon.
“When the pilot got over the Cascades, he said he was having flight-control problems. Then we lost radar and radio contact with him,” said Mike Fergus, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Seattle.
The aviation emergency services division of the Washington State Department of Transportation launched a search for the plane, but could not find it by nightfall Tuesday and suspended the search until the morning.
“The search has been going on since first light this morning,” said state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Nisha Hanchinamani Wednesday. “The air search will continue until it gets dark. If we don’t find them before then, we’ll have to see what kind of evidence we’ve come across to see if we’ll keep searching.”
According to Hanchinamani, Wednesday’s search party consisted of two helicopters, 12 fixed-wing planes, and 60 Search and Rescue volunteers. She said the crew has an area of about 2,400 square miles to cover. Stewart’s wife, Patti, told the Associated Press she didn’t know who her husband’s passenger might be or any other details. She could not be reached for further comment Wednesday.
San Benito County Marshal Robert Scattini is a close friend of Stewart, and said he thought the odds of anyone surviving a crash in the Cascades were not good.
“We’re guessing the plane must have iced-up,” Scattini said. “I don’t know if they’ll find him. The Cascades are some pretty rough country.”
Scattini also said that Stewart was an avid pilot, owning several planes and one helicopter.
“This plane he flew quite a bit,” Scattini said of the jet Stewart disappeared in. The plane’s recent flights included one to Arizona for the fourth of July, and one to Reno, where it was raced by a pilot other than Stewart at the Reno Air Races earlier this year.
According to the AP, the plane Stewart disappeared in was a 40-foot long 1981 jet used by the Russians for training. The 1970s-era plane is one of several bought by Americans, Fergus said. It was FAA-certified and the pilot was trained and certified to operate it, he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Jessica Quandt is a staff writer for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at
jq*****@fr***********.com
.
