Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 14, 1990 TAG: 9005140205
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANASSAS LENGTH: Medium
About 200 people and 17 airplanes resumed the search at dawn Sunday, Civil Air Patrol spokesman Mick Bennett said.
Rescuers covered thousands of square miles and chased three false leads Saturday before calling off the effort at nightfall.
"We were real excited there for a while, because we had a piece of metal on Old Rag Mountain and a transponder signal coming from there," Bennett said. The metal turned out to be a piece of roofing and the transponder signal was traced to a helicopter at Fort A.P. Hill.
The maroon and white Cessna 210, which took off in the early morning hours Thursday from Manteo, N.C., was reported missing by the passengers' relatives Thursday afternoon. The search was delayed by bad weather and began in earnest Friday morning.
The men were returning from an annual fishing trip on the Outer Banks of North Carolina the plane disappeared. Authorities believe the plane's last radio transmission was near Richmond.
The plane did not file a flight plan. The pilot was experienced, but could not fly by instruments, Bennett said.
Several of the missing men live in Northern Virginia. Family and friends have gathered each day at the search headquarters at Manassas Airport for hourly briefings.
Authorities have not released the men's names, but family members identified four of them as:
Ron Wiencek, a Fairfax County contractor and the pilot of the plane; David Day of Arlington, a real estate property manager who turned 38 Saturday; Doug DeBoer of Arlington, also a contractor; and Alan David Weggeland, a systems analyst from Derwood, Md.
The other two men were also from the Washington D.C. area.
by CNB