Spy Planes Scan Mountains For A-10

Three U-2 spy planes were back in the air Saturday searching Colorado’s snow-covered mountains for a missing Air Force pilot and his warplane.

The surveillance planes were taking pictures of a 476-square-mile area near New York and Red and White mountains, about 20 miles southwest of Vail in central Colorado. Two of them have sensitive radar that can see through the snow.

“That’s actually providing us with our data to focus the search,” Air Force Lt. Col. Robin Chandler said.

“What we’re looking for is some sort of signal,” Chandler said, “something that will tell us the plane is there, such as broken trees or scarring or burning.”

Joining the search were Colorado National Guard helicopters, which flew 16 sorties, and Civil Air Patrol planes, which also made 16 flights over the search area, Chandler said.

There was also a military turbo-prop in the search.

The search was expanded from two to five areas on Saturday “because of data imagery,” Chandler said.

It was to resume today with good weather in the forecast.

The A-10 Thunderbolt carrying four 500-pound bombs was reported missing April 2 when Capt. Craig Button broke away from a three-plane formation during a flight exercise over Arizona.

The plane disappeared from radar in Colorado.

Air Force officials have not ruled out the possibility Button is still alive, but a series of snowstorms have brought several inches of snow in the past week, prompting white-out conditions in some areas.