LOCAL : Granada Hills Pilot, Reported Missing, Found Safe in Arizona

A 68-year-old Granada Hills pilot reported missing after taking off from Whiteman Air Park in Pacoima was found safe in Arizona, Los Angeles police said today.

Police said Robert Bell apparently had flown to Phoenix to visit friends for a few days without telling his wife and family. He did not realize he was the subject of a search in California until he called Deer Valley Airport, near Phoenix, Tuesday evening.

“He called in for a weather report and he was advised of the concern back here,” said Detective Jim Lewis of the Los Angeles Police Department’s missing persons unit. “It looks like it was a miscommunication with the family. He is alive and well.

“They were chewing nails but are glad he is OK.”

Bell, a retired carpenter, was scheduled to fly back to Pacoima in his single-engine Grumman today.

Police said Bell drove to Whiteman on Monday after telling family members he was going to look at a plane. When he failed to return home, police were called and discovered his plane was missing.

Investigators believed that Bell might have taken off on an impromptu pleasure ride over the Mojave Desert, as he had done on previous occasions. He had filed no flight plan. The Civil Air Patrol was notified, and on Tuesday 14 planes combed 740 square miles of the desert in search of Bell.