Local News in Brief : Storm Halts Air Search for Missing Couple

Air and ground crews searched without success Tuesday for a Simi Valley couple whose small plane disappeared on a flight from Arizona to Pacoima two days earlier.

Annie Cadoret, 48, and her husband, Dollard (Dell) Cadoret, 55, left Bullhead City, Ariz., shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday and were due at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima about 1 p.m., said Lt. Col. Bob Fowler of the Civil Air Patrol. Both of the Cadorets were experienced pilots.

Fowler said Annie Cadoret had piloted the four-passenger Piper Cherokee when it took off from Whiteman Airport on Saturday afternoon and probably was at the controls on the return flight Sunday.

He said the couple were last heard from in a radio dispatch 10 minutes after takeoff, but they did not indicate any problems with the aircraft. Sunday’s weather was not rough, Fowler said, but the plane would have encountered some clouds during the trip.

Five airplane crews and two ground crews, coordinated by the air patrol, began searching along the Cadorets’ flight path at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Fowler said. Their daughter had reported her parents missing a day earlier.

Air patrol officials had to call off Tuesday’s search about 4:30 p.m. “The weather’s not cooperating with us,” Maj. Gordon Barnett said.

The inclement weather prevented search planes from scouting mountain peaks that would have proved the greatest hazards during the Cadorets’ flight, Barnett said.

Barring weather problems, the search will resume today, he said.