Air Search Suspended For Missing Pilot

Tue., Aug. 17, 1999

An air search for former publisher Ted Natt, who disappeared while flying his helicopter Aug. 7, has been suspended, the commander overseeing the search said Monday.

Floyd “Mac” MacSpadden of the state Aeronautics Division said one ground crew still was investigating the sightings of some broken trees in Oregon. All other possible signs of Natt’s plane have turned up nothing.

Natt, 58, former publisher of The Daily News of Longview, Wash., was reported overdue by his daughter early on Aug. 8 when he had not returned to Kelso from a helicopter trip to Oysterville on the Long Beach peninsula in southwestern Washington.

Witnesses said Natt had taken off in his two-seat helicopter about 8:30 p.m. Aug. 7 for what should have been a 40-minute flight to Kelso, about 60 miles to the east, after attending a memorial service and dinner.

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