CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : TWENTYNINE PALMS : Search Begun for 2 Aboard Small Plane

Twenty volunteer pilots flew over the California and Arizona desert Wednesday searching for a small plane missing for the last three days, officials said. The pilots were hoping to spot the aircraft or pick up emergency transmissions from it, but no trace had been found by midafternoon, said Lt. Col. Ed Crankshaw of the Civil Air Patrol. The pilot, hotel executive William Crimmins, and his passenger, Lavonne Deschpper, took off Monday afternoon from a South Dakota airport and headed for Thermal, Calif. But the plane never landed in Thermal and was reported missing shortly before midnight Monday.