Missing pilot is Tonasket ex-councilman

EAST WENATCHEE – After more than two days of searching, rescuers have yet to locate a missing Glasair single-engine plane, piloted by Ed Jeffko, a former Tonasket city councilman who took off from the Tonasket airport at 6:30 a.m. Monday and never reached his destination in Sequim.

About 45 people and eight aircraft searched the route from Tonasket to Sequim on Tuesday and Wednesday, and by 3:30 p.m. had nothing new to report, said Tom Peterson, the state Department of Transportation’s aviation emergency coordinator.

Patrick Plumb, mayor of Tonasket and a good friend of the family, said Jeffko is in his 60s and a veteran pilot. He was councilman in the 1990s and remains active on the Tonasket Civil Service Board, Economic Development Committee and local airport.

“He’s been a big asset to the community for years,” Plumb said. “He’s been a pilot for years and has talked about making trips all over the state. He’s built his own plane, but bought the one he was flying.”

Crews on Tuesday took a closer look at an area in the Cascade Mountains where weather conditions could have made flying difficult, but found no indications of where to concentrate their search, Peterson said.