Into Thin Air

Capt. Craig Button took off in a $9 million Air Force attack jet last week for a practice run. Within minutes, the plane and its arsenal of four 500-pound bombs were gone.

All that’s known for sure is that the A-10 Thunderbolt was last spotted on radar over the Colorado Rockies - nearly 800 miles off course. That was last Wednesday.

Did it crash?

Was it sabotaged?

Or did the pilot steal it, like something out of the movie “Broken Arrow”?

“Anything you can think of has probably been looked at,” said Staff Sgt. Rian Clawson at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. “But the evidence so far doesn’t indicate any of these wild hypotheses, like he was trying to steal it, or he went off to Telluride to go skiing.”

The Air Force rebuffs the idea that Button purposely veered the plane off course. But officials acknowledged Tuesday that investigators are looking into Button’s background.

“The investigation … includes all aspects of the plane and pilot, anything to do with the situation,” said Staff Sgt. Bret Zieman at Davis-Monthan.

People who live near the base consider anti-government or even cult activity possible.

“It sounds fishy,” said Bob Jones, a customer at Famous Sam’s Restaurant and Bar. “He could be part of a militia, for all anyone knows.”

Officials had theorized the pilot could have become incapacitated and may have put the single-seat plane on autopilot. But radar and witness accounts suggest the plane was being maneuvered and wasn’t simply gliding.

The mystery began last Wednesday morning about 90 minutes after Button’s plane took off in formation with two other A-10s bound for the Barry M. Goldwater bombing range in southwestern Arizona. The plane was carrying conventional, not nuclear, weapons.

One of the jets reported seeing Button’s plane flying in the rear, but a minute later the lead pilot radioed Button and got no response. When the other pilots realized the plane was missing, they broke formation and began the search.

Initially, the search focused in Arizona, but it shifted to Colorado three days later after authorities checked radar records and witnesses there reported seeing a low-flying plane.

Pentagon officials were looking into the time Button spent at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, where he was a flight instructor until he arrived in Tucson in February to train on the A-10, an ungainly anti-tank plane commonly known as the Warthog. CBS reported Monday that Button had asked that his training flights at Laughlin be routed through Colorado.

An Air Force official at the Pentagon, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Button had made many cross-country flying trips during his training, and they may have involved stops in Colorado. Button has a brother in Denver.

Button’s relatives said they knew of nothing suspicious involving the 32-year-old Massapequa, N.Y., native.

“He was A-OK, stable, didn’t seem to be under any stress. But he was having to study hard,” said the captain’s father, Richard Button, who had trained pilots during World War II.

The elder Button said his son had a passion for flying and dreamed of living a life like the pilots in the movie “Top Gun.”

“We’re hoping he bailed out. There’s no evidence that he bailed out, but there’s no evidence that he didn’t,” he said.

The Air Force doubts Button bailed out; his ejection seat would have automatically sent out a homing beacon.

The jet itself didn’t have its tracking device turned on because it was flying in formation, said Maj. Joe LaMarca, spokesman for Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va., the headquarters for all combat bases.

“It’s part of a normal procedure when you’re in formation that only the lead aircraft turns it on,” LaMarca said.

The last radar track showed the jet near the 12,467-foot New York Mountain near Edwards, Colo. Button’s plane was fully fueled when it took off, but it would have been nearly empty by then. Tuesday’s search in the area was cut off in the early afternoon by low and threatening clouds.

“In some instances if a plane crashes it’s easy to see, but not always,” LaMarca said. “If it crashed and is now covered with snow, that makes it more challenging. And no one saw it go down.”