Search continues for missing plane in Wyoming

By BEN NEARY, Associated Press Writer

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Searchers combing the mountains of western Wyoming for a plane carrying a Minneapolis executive and three of his children are hoping sensitive detection equipment will hear a signal from the missing plane's locater beacon.

Ernie Over, spokesman for search operations in Lander, said Thursday that authorities plan to stop helicopter flights to let an airplane that specializes in finding signals from emergency locater transmitters fly a grid pattern over the area.

Searchers have been looking since Tuesday for a single-engine plane carrying Luke Bucklin, 41, and the three boys. They left the Jackson airport at about noon Monday in a snowstorm and disappeared from radar an hour later over the craggy Wind River Range.

No emergency signal has been detected yet from the missing single-engine, 1977 Mooney propeller plane.

The search is concentrating on about 9 square miles near Gannett Peak, Wyoming's tallest mountain at just over 13,800 feet.

The first four-man team of mountaineers searching on the ground helicoptered into the area Tuesday, camped out that night and began searching Wednesday. They left the area Wednesday night, Over said.

Many of the mountaineers searching on the ground are associated with the National Outdoor Leadership School, based in Lander.

"These guys from NOLS are really experienced in the backcountry, and they came out exhausted," Over said. "They went through deep snows. They said it's really, really tough terrain. It's heavy timber down there in the bottom country, and they've got fresh snow there."

A fresh team of mountaineers went into the area Thursday morning, Over said. He said there are six men and one woman searching on the ground.

The search area is within the Fitzpatrick Wilderness Area, about 20 miles from the nearest highway. The mountains there are extremely rugged and officials say the search area is among the most remote spots in the continental United States.

While nighttime temperatures have been dipping below freezing in the search area, Over said officials still regard the search as a rescue mission, not merely a recovery operation.

"It's a rescue effort," Over said. "Fortunately we have a weather window right now. The weather's not that bad. It's windy, but it's clear, and warmer, and high cloudiness. But it's a great opportunity to do some real intensive searching."

Luke Bucklin, 41, and his sons, 14-year-old twins Nate and Nick, and 12-year-old Noah, were in Jackson on a family vacation.

Bonnie Harris, a family friend of Luke Bucklin and his wife, Ginger Bucklin, said the family had been in Wyoming for a wedding and family vacation. Ginger Bucklin and the couple's youngest son flew home separately on a commercial flight, Harris said.

Luke Bucklin is president and co-founder of the Bloomington, Minn.-based Web development company Sierra Bravo Corp.

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