The sobering thing about this incident is that our technologically advanced systems don't always work. There are apparently no further developments in this story as of today.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Grand Canyon National Park (AZ)
Search In Progress For Missing Aircraft And Pilot

On Sunday, March 13th, Grand Canyon Airport received a report from a general aviation pilot of an activated emergency locator transmitter (also known as an ELT). The airport immediately notified the NPS because the ELT had been detected approximately 30 miles northwest of Grand Canyon Village in the vicinity of Fossil Corridor within Grand Canyon National Park. The park's helicopter flew the area in the vicinity of the reported ELT activation, but did not find any signs of a downed plane nor did they detect the beacon. Because no corresponding report of a missing plane could be found, the search was called off at that point. On Monday, the Coconino County Sheriff's Office contacted the park about a missing person - 47-year-old Joseph Radford of Glendale, Arizona. In the course of their investigation, the sheriff's office had determined that Radford owned a red, RV-6 homebuilt, experimental aircraft, which was also missing. They also determined that Radford's plane was seen at Grand Canyon Airport shortly after 8:30 a.m. the previous Friday. Based on radar tracking information from Friday, the crew of the park helicopter concentrated their search efforts in the Scorpion Ridge area, located in the vicinity of the Dragon Corridor, on Monday. On Tuesday, the park's helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft both flew search patterns in the Fossil Corridor and Scorpion Ridge areas, but with no success. Meanwhile, the sheriff's office continued its investigations and began contacting backpackers known to have been to these areas to see if anyone had seen or heard the plane on Friday. Investigations and aerial searches continued yesterday. The focus was on Bedrock and Galloway Canyons in the Fossil Corridor area. Radford is described as a 47-year-old white male, with blue eyes, graying hair and a receding hairline. He is 5'11" tall and weighs approximately 190 pounds. His plane is described as an RV6 Kit Built cherry red airplane with tail number N650RV. Anyone who may have seen Radford or his plane on Friday morning is asked to contact the park at 928-638-7805. The latest estimate of the total search area is 600 square miles with the National Park Service leading joint search operations with the Coconino County Sheriff's Office. [Submitted by Shannan Marcak, Public Affairs Officer]