Thursday, August 26, 1999
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Searchers in the air and on the ground looked Thursday for a small airplane with four people aboard that failed to return to Newport News from a flight to Charlottesville or the Shenandoah Valley.
The four-seat Cessna 172 piloted by Robert D. Spencer took off Wednesday morning from the Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport, Civil Air Patrol spokeswoman Linda Utting said. It did not return as scheduled at 5 p.m., and a search was ordered after the plane was still missing at 11 p.m., she said.
Two children and one other adult were passengers on the plane, Ms. Utting said. Authorities withheld the passengers' names Thursday. But one of the children was identified by a relative as Spencer's 7-year-old son, known as D.J.
The plane was rented from Skyworld Flight Training Center at Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport, Ms. Utting said. On the rental papers, Spencer listed Charlottesville as his destination, she said.
An employee who answered the telephone Thursday night at Skyworld refused to comment on whether the company had rented a plane to Spencer. She declined to identify herself.
After takeoff, Spencer told Federal Aviation Administration controllers by radio that he was flying to Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport at Weyers Cave, about 25 miles northwest of Charlottesville, Ms. Utting said.
FAA spokesman Jim Peters said a radar operator at Richmond International Airport spoke with the pilot. The plane never arrived at the Shenandoah Valley airport, Peters said.
Spencer was flying under visual flight rules and filed no flight plan, Ms. Utting said.
About 50 searchers from the Appalachian Search and Rescue Team and the CAP focused their search Thursday on a 30-mile radius around the Shenandoah Valley airport, Ms. Utting said. The area includes mountains and flat land.
Earlier in the day, searchers retraced the entire route the plane likely would have flown from Newport News toward Charlottesville, she said.
The Daily Press in Newport News said the plane carried the registration number N733DH.
Officials received what Ms. Utting called a "sporadic hit'' from an airplane emergency locator transmitter around 3 p.m. Wednesday, but it was so brief that it was impossible to determine its point of origin, she said.
Spencer, 30, is a volunteer firefighter and paramedic with Gloucester Fire and Rescue, said Chief Andy James.
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