Possible Signal From Plane Spurs Search
Searchers unsuccessfully scoured a remote mountain peak Sunday for a missing California couple after hearing what seemed to be an emergency transmission from their downed airplane.
Pilot Larry Richards and his girlfriend, Barbara Keating, both 56, were reported missing Oct. 29 when their twin-engine Beechcraft failed to arrive in Idaho after leaving Placentia.
“There’s a good possibility they’re alive,” said Maj. Phil Brown of the Nevada Civil Air Patrol. “They had provisions on board. They had water.”
A ground search was ordered after a pilot reported hearing what seemed to be a series of 10 microphone clicks while flying over the Ruby Mountains, 25 miles east of Elko, on Saturday, Brown said.
A radio with a low battery can transmit clicks after it can no longer send voice communication, he said.
Brown conceded that the clicks could have come from another aircraft but said no other planes have been reported missing in the area.
Nearly 50 volunteers headed up 9,180-foot Secret Peak on foot Sunday, Brown said. Nine aircraft, including an Air Force helicopter equipped with night vision equipment, also searched the rugged terrain.
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