LOCAL : El Toro Marine Observation Plane Missing on Desert Practice Flight

A U.S. Marine Corps observation plane with two crew members aboard disappeared Thursday on a practice run over the Southern California desert, prompting a search that continued today.

The twin-engine OV-10A aircraft left Camp Pendleton at 11:30 a.m. Thursday and was due back three hours later, said 1st Lt. G. C. Browne, spokesman for the Third Marine Aircraft Wing based at El Toro. The aircraft, from Marine Observation Squadron 2, Marine Aircraft Group 39, Third Marine Aircraft Wing, was on a routine training mission, Browne said.

The plane with a three-hour fuel supply was declared missing when it failed to return, Browne said. A search was commenced between Yuma, Ariz., and Twentynine Palms, near where the aircraft had been flying in a practice observation area.

Names of the pilot and an observer were to be released later today.