Body At Site Of A-10 Crash Is That Of Captain, Tests Show

The Air Force has solved part of the mysterious disappearance of Capt. Craig Button, determining through a DNA match that he was in his A-10 Thunderbolt that crashed into a snowy Colorado mountainside.

But military officials said Monday that the force with which Button’s warplane crashed may have obliterated clues as to why the 32-year-old pilot veered off from a routine training mission in southwestern Arizona.

“There’s a legitimate concern that we might never know what caused Capt. Button to fly north,” said Capt. Leo Devine, a Pentagon spokesman.

Button broke off from the training mission on April 2. The Air Force tracked the $9 million plane’s northeasterly path into Colorado, where it was found.

Now that the military knows where the A-10 and its pilot ended up, officials say they aren’t certain if they’ll ever know why it was there. The main problem is evidence.

The Air Force retrieved two small pieces of the plane, including plastic-insulated tubing and wires and a section of metal, before officials postponed the salvage operation until the snow melts.

The longer the search through the wreckage is delayed, the longer the remains will be subject to weather and wildlife, which may make it impossible to learn whether Button suffered from hypoxia, a condition that cuts oxygen, or another health problem.

“The recovery operation is at a halt and that’ll play a big role - when they go back,” said Chris Kelly of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington. “That is, if there’s anything there.”

Unlike commercial planes, the A-10 was not equipped with a flight data recorder with information about the plane and the pilot.