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Summit County Rescue Group command leader Mark Svenson records the names and cell phone numbers of search and rescue team members who were dispatched into the backcountry Tuesday afternoon in search of a missing Piper thought to be in the area southeast of Hoosier Pass. The plane remains missing.
FAIRPLAY — Six search aircraft patrolled over Hoosier Pass Wednesday for signs of a plane with two elderly men aboard who have been missing since Thursday.
A radio signal originally believed to be from an aircraft emergency locator transmitter turned out to be generated by a high-voltage power line running through the search area, Civil Air Patrol spokesman Stephen Blucher said.
Claiborne Courtright, 81, and William Duffy, 77, both from Pueblo, were last heard from after refueling their 1954 red-and-tan Piper Tri-Pacer in Kremmling during a leisurely flight along the Continental Divide. They had taken off earlier that day from Fremont County Airport in Canon City and were reported overdue after failing to return.
The search focused on the Hoosier Pass area because of the radio signal and a report of a loud boom.
Ground crews from the Civil Air Patrol and Summit and Park counties were on standby Wednesday, Blucher said.
Family members were hopeful the two would be found alive.
“They are outdoorsmen and pilots and we figure that if any one can survive out there, it’s my dad and Bill,’ Courtright’s daughter, Janet Ross, told the Pueblo Chieftain. “We just hope they find them soon.”
The men are experienced mountain pilots and were carrying survival gear, the Park County Sheriff’s Department said.
Courtright, a retired dermatologist, and Duffy, a retired insurance executive, were longtime friends and usually flew over the mountains once a week.
A radio signal originally believed to be from an aircraft emergency locator transmitter turned out to be generated by a high-voltage power line running through the search area, Civil Air Patrol spokesman Stephen Blucher said.
Claiborne Courtright, 81, and William Duffy, 77, both from Pueblo, were last heard from after refueling their 1954 red-and-tan Piper Tri-Pacer in Kremmling during a leisurely flight along the Continental Divide. They had taken off earlier that day from Fremont County Airport in Canon City and were reported overdue after failing to return.
The search focused on the Hoosier Pass area because of the radio signal and a report of a loud boom.
Ground crews from the Civil Air Patrol and Summit and Park counties were on standby Wednesday, Blucher said.
Family members were hopeful the two would be found alive.
“They are outdoorsmen and pilots and we figure that if any one can survive out there, it’s my dad and Bill,’ Courtright’s daughter, Janet Ross, told the Pueblo Chieftain. “We just hope they find them soon.”
The men are experienced mountain pilots and were carrying survival gear, the Park County Sheriff’s Department said.
Courtright, a retired dermatologist, and Duffy, a retired insurance executive, were longtime friends and usually flew over the mountains once a week.
