DATE: Monday, April 21, 1997                TAG: 9704210050

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: EAGLE, COLO.                      LENGTH:   78 lines

MISSING WARPLANE BELIEVED FOUND IN COLO. MOUNTAINS

Searchers have found what is likely the wreckage of a missing, bomb-laden warplane sticking out of a remote snow-covered slope in the Rocky Mountains, the Air Force said Sunday.

Metal protruding from the snow was seen by a search plane at 11:20 a.m., but a ground search team could not be sent in because of treacherous conditions on the steep mountain, just southwest of Vail.

There was no sign of the pilot, Maj. Gen. Nels Running said, but the type of wreckage visible points to Capt. Craig Button's A-10 Thunderbolt.

``It is our collective judgment that what we have seen is likely to be A-10 airplane pieces,'' Running said.

An Army National Guard helicopter pilot saw the wreckage while hovering ``right at the face of the face, and it took that disciplined, close-up look to see what he saw,'' Running said.

A close-up look revealed pieces of metal with gray paint, sections that could have been from the interior of the plane and several smaller pieces of metal, he said. Yellow-green paint used as an anti-corrosion coating inside the airplane was also visible, he said.

``Our next step will be to determine with certainty that the sighted wreckage is in fact our missing aircraft,'' he said. ``We will need to get some pieces to make that absolutely certain.''

The plane has been missing since April 2, when Button took off from a Tucson, Ariz., base on a routine training mission and veered north, heading to Colorado with four bombs aboard.

The wreckage was seen on the south side of New York Mountain, a 12,500-foot peak about 15 miles southwest of Vail. The area had been examined before, but snow in the area has melted since then, he said.

A ground search will get under way when the weather and conditions make it possible, officials said.

``The terrain is very steep, snow-covered,'' Running said. ``There is no way to get there easily.''

2nd Lt. Keith Shepherd, a spokesman for Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona who is at the search headquarters in Eagle, said the site was within the primary search area and was consistent with visual sightings about the time the warplane disappeared.

The jet was not carrying live rounds in its guns because it was on a training exercise. The Air Force said it believed the 500-pound bombs attached to the warplane were not primed and would not have exploded if the plane crashed.

Three days after Button, 32, disappeared, the search shifted to Colorado, where faint radar signals were detected in the central Rocky Mountains. Radar data and witness accounts indicate Button consciously broke away from his three-plane training formation and flew to Colorado.

Air Force officials previously suggested that Button could have become incapacitated and put the $9 million plane on autopilot.

People reported hearing booming noises in the Vail area on the day Button disappeared. Other witnesses have said they saw dark clouds that could have been smoke.

Weather, rugged terrain and avalanche danger made search efforts difficult. Officials used U-2 spy planes and helicopters to scour the mountains around Eagle, about 100 miles west of Denver.

Button, a native of Massapequa, N.Y., had been a flight instructor at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, until he arrived in Tucson in February to train on the A-10.

Military investigators have been looking into his background in hopes of finding an explanation for his disappearance. The probe includes the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations, which typically handles criminal matters such as fraud and counterintelligence.

But Air Force officials involved in the search have said the investigation has found ``no derogatory evidence'' about his past. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo

The A-10 Thunderbolt was carrying unprimed bombs, the Air Force

said.

KRT Graphic

The Missing A-10

[Likely crash site]

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: U.S. AIR FORCE A-10

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