Local News in Brief : Search for Elderly Pilot Called Off
An 11-day search for an elderly Hollywood pilot, who disappeared during a Jan. 5 flight from Watsonville to Santa Monica, was called off Tuesday, Civil Air Patrol officers said.
It will resume only if U.S. Air Force officials determine there are remaining areas where the pilot, John Thompson, may have gone down but have not been searched, said Lt. Col. Bob Fowler of the Air Force auxiliary CAP.
During the search, volunteers “used 195 aircraft . . . and were airborne a total of 818 flight hours,” Fowler said.
Pilots based at Santa Monica Airport searched 13,650 square miles while taking several 300-mile trips between Watsonville and Santa Monica, he said.
Ground crews unsuccessfully searched mountaintops and other areas along the route where the pilot, in his 70s, was believed to have gone down in blizzard-like conditions.
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