AUTHORITIES ABANDON SEARCH FOR AIRCRAFT
BLOOMINGTON -- Police and firefighters on Sunday called off their search for a plane reported down in Monroe County after finding no wreckage.
Steve McClain, a conservation officer with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, said he suspected something else caused the explosion heard by two witnesses and the fireball seen by a third.
"This area's pretty desolate," he said. "...It could have been somebody playing around with some type of homemade explosive or fire bomb type thing,"
Indiana State Police Cpl. Rick Wright said a witness, who happened to be a pilot, reported seeing a plane crash around 8:50 p.m. Saturday.
Two others heard the explosion, police said. But McClain said a thorough search of the wooded, hilly area found nothing. A helicopter with infrared swooped over the area Saturday night, and a plane went over it for four hours on Sunday.
Ground crews included state and county police, DNR officers, the Perry Clear Creek fire department and U.S. Forestry officers.
The search was abandoned about 2 p.m. Sunday, McClain said.
"With no outcome to it and nobody being reported as missing... we don't have to much to go for now," he said. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Lafayette Journal and Courier, Monday, April 1, 1996, Vol. 2, No. 88
Back to Hoosier NF Report