A-10 Bomb Search Fails
By ROBERT WELLER
01:00 AM ET 08/26/99
EAGLE, Colo. (AP) - A search team looking for a bomb from the suicide crash of
an A-10 Air Force warplane two years ago found an old unexploded mortar shell Wednesday,
but no sign of the 500-pound bombs they were seeking.
Eagle County Sheriff's Deputy John O'Sullivan said searchers found ``some old
military ordnance, including what appeared to be an intact mortar shell.''
The search team was formed to investigate the sighting of a hike who had found
an object with a protruding tailfin wedged between rocks about eight miles south of where
Capt. Craig Button's plane hit the mountain.
Button's attack jet was carrying four 500-pound bombs from a base in Tucson,
Ariz., when he broke formation with two other planes on April 2, 1997.
For three hours, Button flew an erratic 500-mile course that ended when he
crashed into the 13,000-foot Gold Dust Peak. Air Force investigators concluded he
committed suicide. The wreckage was found after an 18-day search, but there was no trace
of the bombs, despite a 72-day search.
The search team, including the hiker, an Air Force officer, a civilian engineer
and a forest ranger, arrived near the site in a four-wheeled drive vehicle and hiked to
the remote spot, returning before nightfall.
The unidentified hiker discovered the object in the fall, but snow and the
threat of avalanches prevented officials from heading to the site near Whitney Mountain
until this week.
The military closed the area until the bomb can be disarmed. O'Sullivan
said it is believed the ordnance was left from training in World War II. The region was
declared a wilderness area in 1980 and there has been no military training there since
then.
HEAR THE STORY IN AUDIO FROM NPR
April 21,1997 Morning Edition
N-P-R'S MARK
ROBERTS REPORTS THAT THE AIR FORCE believes it has found the wreckage of the
missing A-10 attack aircraft high in the Rockies. The plane went missing April 2 while on
maneuvers. What appears to be wreckage was found in area near Vail, Colorado that had been
searched before, but was covered in deep snow until now.
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