A 40-foot-long Lear jet lost contact with the Lebanon Airport control tower after an aborted attempt to land in bad weather Dec. 24, and authorities have been unable to locate its wreckage or pilots.
The air and ground search of the Hanover-Lebanon region, now entering its 14th day, has been called one of the largest search efforts ever conducted in the United States, according to the Valley News.
The two pilots, Johan Schwartz, 31, of Fairfield, Conn., and Patrick Hayes, 30, of Clinton, Conn. were flying to Lebanon Municipal Airport to pick up a charter passenger. Their plane lost contact with the control tower about 2 p.m.
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department has conducted an air search using helicopters and planes from the Army National Guard. The search has covered a 2,800-square-mile area, stretching from the White Mountains to the Connecticut River and as far south as the Massachusetts border.
Air searchers, who had been hampered by freezing rain and poor visibility, are now examining areas with a smaller likelihood of success, according to the Valley News. Officials are following up on any tips they receive.
Early in the search, the pilots' families organized a ground search based at Sacred Heart Church in Lebanon. Hundreds of people gathered to take part, searching by automobile, by foot and even by snowmobile.
Fish and Game Department officials had advised against sending volunteers into the wilderness without better information on the plane's whereabouts.
The families of the missing pilots have since called a halt to the ground search. Family members said they were emotionally and physically exhausted and did not want to keep volunteer searchers at risk in the wilderness, the Valley News reported.
Dartmouth Outing Club General Manager David Hooke said his office has fielded phone calls from people inquiring about the search, although the College is not directly involved.
"We have been telling them to call the church where the families had organized their own effort, he said."
A World Wide Web site has been established to inform the public of developments in the search.
