MiG-17 Still Missing After Nightlong Search - New Mexico

March 26, 2004

MiG-17 Still Missing After Nightlong Search

The Associated Press

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. — The pilot of a single-engine
airplane that disappeared from radar reported fuel transfer problems
minutes earlier, state police said.
Search crews from state police and the Civil Air Patrol conducted
a ground search through Thursday night for the MiG-17.
The privately owned civilian airplane was flying from Roswell to
the Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix when the pilot advised of the
problems, state police Lt. Jimmy Glascock said.
The airplane left Roswell at 7 a.m. MST. Contact was lost at
around 7:30 a.m., Glascock said.
A state police helicopter and Civil Air Patrol airplanes aided in
the search Thursday afternoon.
Searchers said they held out hope because the pilot, who was the
only person aboard the airplane, had a parachute.
The desert west of Truth or Consequences was pinpointed based on
the coordinates of the last radar signal received from the airplane,
Glascock said.
Police did not immediately release the pilot's name or the owner
of the aircraft.
The older fighter aircraft are brought to the United States and
converted into airplanes used for pleasure, said Federal Aviation
Administration spokesman John Clabes.
The pilot had filed a flight plan and the airplane was being
monitored from Albuquerque when its radar signal was lost. Officials
at the Deer Valley Airport confirmed that the airplane never arrived,
Glascock said.

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/apmig03-26-04.htm

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