Fruitless Leads a Blow to Leland Plane Search

Promising leads on the missing airplane carrying Rep. Mickey Leland and 15 other persons fizzled Friday as an air and ground search of two areas pinpointed by what were thought to be emergency signals failed to turn up any sign of the plane.

The failure to find the plane on the fourth day after it disappeared in heavy weather over rough terrain dealt a blow to hopes that the Texas Democrat might still be found alive with his American and Ethiopian companions.

Nevertheless, American officials said that three more C-130 search planes and four spare crews would arrive today to join in the search. Two C-130 cargo planes took part in the search Friday. The additional crews will allow the planes to spend more daylight time over the search area.

Four MH-60 Blackhawk helicopters that arrived Friday also will be used today. Military spokesmen said the helicopters are especially suitable for searching heavily forested areas because they can go slower and lower than fixed-wing aircraft.

Leland, 44, chairman of the House Select Committee on Hunger, was headed for a Sudanese refugee camp at Fugnido, in western Ethiopia, when his government-owned De Havilland Twin Otter disappeared in a storm. With him were three members of his staff, a friend, three resident U.S. officials and the wife of one of them, and seven Ethiopians, including the plane’s crew of three.

For three days after the plane disappeared, U.S. officials here expressed optimism that the plane’s skilled bush pilot might have set the plane down in a safe but remote area.

But the optimism appeared to wane Friday as 12 Ethiopian and two American search planes returned to Addis Ababa about 5 p.m. without having sighted the missing plane.

“We were just looking for anything,” Staff Sgt. K.S. Craner, crew chief of one of the two C-130s, said after a fruitless 10-hour sortie over the region where one of the emergency signals appeared to have originated.

Robert Houdek, charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy here, said at an evening news briefing, “It’s turned out to be a hell of a tougher nut to crack than any of us expected.”

Began at Daybreak

Friday’s search began at daybreak. The day before, an American weather satellite had detected what seemed to be a distress signal about 85 miles southeast of Addis Ababa. Not long afterward, a second signal, apparently originating about 100 miles northeast of Addis, was detected by a second satellite.

Officials conceded that the signals might have been the result of atmospheric distortion, sunspots or even passing commercial aircraft.

In Addis Ababa and in Washington, members of Leland’s staff and some of his colleagues began to complain about the way the search has been managed. At a news conference in Washington, Alma Newsom, Leland’s press secretary, wondered aloud why sophisticated U.S. personnel and equipment had not been able to find the plane.

Two of Leland’s congressional colleagues, Reps. Alan Wheat (D-Mo.) and Gary L. Ackerman (D-N.Y.), arrived here and complained that Air Force officers in the United States had rejected their suggestion that a field station be established near Leland’s destination on the Ethiopia-Sudan border so that search planes could spend more time over the most likely landing sites.

Ackerman, wearing military camouflage clothing he said he borrowed because he left Washington on short notice, complained that four American search and rescue helicopters that arrived here Friday morning were grounded all day because they arrived without fresh crews. Military officials here said the flight from Europe had exhausted the crews’ permissible flying time.

“It strikes us,” Ackerman said, “that every day they are not found is crucial to their survival, and that increases on a geometric scale.”

Houdek, the embassy official, said: “We can share the sense of frustration expressed at (secretary Newsom’s) press conference, but we’re hoping to avoid second-guessing. I can’t remember any more extensive deployment of U.S. aircraft and personnel to find a downed aircraft, particularly in the developing world. We believe the level of resources now committed is sufficient, although it can certainly be enhanced if required.”

A total of 207 U.S. servicemen are engaged in the search operation, which covers about 40,000 square miles that include virtually inaccessible mountains, desert and high plateau, according to Lt. Col. William E. Goodwin, who is in charge of the operation.