Air Force Gives Up Search For A-10 Bombs

Frustrated and puzzled after a 72-day sweep, the Air Force on Tuesday gave up the search for the four 500-pound bombs from an A-10 warplane that crashed mysteriously in the Rockies.

“I’m not going to speculate as to where they are. I’m just going to stick to the facts,” Brig. Gen Donald Streater said. “We have not found any conclusive evidence of the bombs.”

During the five-month sweep of 13,300-foot Gold Dust Peak, Air Force crews recovered the remains of A-10 pilot Capt. Craig Button along with nine tons of debris from the 13-ton aircraft, but found no trace of the bombs.

Radar, reconnaissance flights and magnetometer devices were used in the hunt for the bombs, and a Navy diver explored one of the seven lakes in the area, the general said.

An environmental recovery company will continue to collect debris until the snow returns, probably in about two weeks, but Streater said the Air Force has no plans to resume the search for the bombs in the spring.

Button veered off course April 2 during a training run in Arizona for reasons Air Force officials still don’t know. The debris was found about 15 miles southwest of Vail more than two weeks later.