After more than two weeks of fruitless air and ground scrutiny of the rugged Rocky Mountains, Air Force officials announced that searchers Sunday spotted what appeared to be the wreckage of a missing A-10 attack jet jutting from melting snow along a sheer mountain face.
“It is our collective judgment that what we have seen is likely to be A-10 aircraft pieces,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Nels Running, speaking at the Eagle County airport, just west of New York Mountain, where the apparent wreckage was seen by a Colorado National Guard helicopter hovering at 12,500 feet.
Running added that he was 99.9 percent sure it was Capt. Craig Button’s A-10 Thunderbolt, but there was no sign of the pilot.
The missing plane broke off from a three-plane training flight at Davis-Monthan Air Force base near Gila Bend, Ariz., on April 2.
The search began after witnesses reported seeing flames and hearing a thunderous boom near the mountain that day. Radar tracks confirmed the approximate location of Button’s last moments and that he had traveled about 800 miles, the approximate range of his fuel.
The wreckage has only been tentatively identified from the air, Running said, adding that there was nothing to indicate the fate of Button. Officials have said for more than a week that his survival was highly improbable.
A weather forecast of snow until Monday morning will likely hamper the searchers’ ability to mount a ground assault on the sheer mountain face where the wreckage was spotted, Running said.
“The terrain is very steep. It is snow-covered,” he said.
The metal pieces spotted Sunday morning were in an area that had been searched previously, but not since warmer weather had reduced snow cover, Running said.
Early Sunday morning, he said, members of the search teams held a “serious skull session” and decided on a new search of the area around nearby New York Lake and then to work outward. The metal pieces were spotted shortly after the search began.
A close-up look revealed pieces of gray painted metal that could have been from the plane’s interior and several smaller pieces of metal, Running said. Yellow-green paint used as an anti-corrosion coating inside the airplane was also visible, he said.
“The evidence, metal protruding from the snow, was consistent with the metal found in the structural makeup of an A-10,” Running said. “No one has set foot on the ground in suspected area yet. Therefore, we’ve only viewed the area from the air due to the inaccessibility of the terrain.”
No land-based searchers were dispatched on Sunday due to weather conditions and the ruggedness of the terrain. “It is extremely, extremely sheer,” Running said. “There is no way you can get close to it with an aircraft.”
He added that because the plane was armed with four 500-pound bombs, the military was concerned about getting to the wreckage before anyone else. However, he said, “This is very inaccessible. I don’t anticipate anyone in this area on foot” until the military arrives.
Asked about Button’s fate,” Running said, “At this time, (we) cannot tell. We will have to have someone on the ground that is able and trained to look for those remains. I do not have anything positive to say at this point.”
There was no sign of Button, 32, who could have ejected without the Air Force’s knowledge.
The Air Force plans to suspend a military search team from a helicopter to examine the wreckage. The search could begin Monday, when a helicopter that can withstand high winds is to arrive from Washington state with the search crew.
The wreckage was spotted on an unnamed cliff near New York Mountain and Gold Dust Peak, mountains 13,000 feet high about 15 miles southwest of Vail.
National Guard Chief Warrant Officers Richard Rugg of Denver and Dale Jensen of Eagle discovered the apparent wreckage.
“The first thing we saw was just a couple pieces of paper,” Rugg said. “Then something just caught my eye.”
The warplane was not carrying live rounds in its guns because it was on a training exercise. The Air Force said it believed the 500-pound bombs attached to the warplane were not activated and would have remained intact if the plane crashed.
Three days after Button disappeared, the search shifted to Colorado, where faint radar signals were detected. Radar data and witness accounts indicate Button consciously broke away from his three-plane training formation and flew to Colorado.
Air Force officials previously suggested Button could have become incapacitated and put the $9 million plane on autopilot.
People reported hearing booming noises in the Vail area on the day Button disappeared. Other witnesses have said they saw dark clouds that could have been smoke.
Button, 32, a native of Massapequa, N.Y., had been a flight instructor at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, until he arrived in Tucson in February to train on the A-10. His parents could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Military investigators have been looking into his background in hopes of finding an explanation for his disappearance. Air Force officials involved in the search have said the investigation has found “no derogatory evidence” about his past.
