Plane Crash During Search For Missing Teen

(AP)  Authorities say a Civil Air Patrol plane being used to search for a missing Wyoming teenager crashed and burned in the Bighorn National Forest, killing the three people aboard.

Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration, says the plane went down Monday evening and was destroyed by fire.

Rescuers reached the remote crash site Tuesday afternoon and recovered the bodies of the crew members, said Jeanne Stone-Hunter, spokeswoman for Civil Air Patrol's Wyoming Wing.

Hunter says the pilot of the Cessna 182R last made radio contact with another pilot in the area at about 4 p.m. Monday.

Authorities say 16-year-old Keith Bellack of Gillette, Wyoming, who had disappeared Sunday while fishing, was found alive about an hour later.

The three Civil Air Patrol members killed are identified by authorities as Lt. Col. James Henderson, 59, and his two passengers, Senior Member James Meyer, 53, and Capt. Patricia Larson, 52.

The Civil Air Patrol is a nonprofit U.S. Air Force auxiliary organization that performs 95 percent of the nation's inland search and rescue operations, according to its Web site. The group has about 56,000 members nationwide, including more than 250 in Wyoming, and also specializes in aerospace education.

[pupspop]

I''ve never posted a comment before but some of the comments I see make the old adage, "It''s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."

[clawson44-2009]

AGNIM..... You need to reevaluate yourself...Where in the heck did any of these stories say he was a nut job???? It was a 16 year old kid lost..We all do our best to find these people when it happens. Get off your computer chair and help out or at least have compassion.

[desi131]

i''m sorry to inform you that this information is incorrect..."but searchers could not find any wreckage before nightfall." The helicopters did identify to us that they could see the plane on the ground before nightfall.

And also the following is incorrect as well, "Forest Service aircraft spotted the wreckage this morning in a remote canyon in the Bighorn Forest." we identified the plane from the ground at the crash site at night.

Please reevaluate your information

[agnim]

See, I''d hate to think that these good Americans lost their lives because they were in search of another of the nut cases, who don''t have much regard for the lives and safety of the people who may have to come looking for them when they go on their stupid jaunts, or for the families of rescuers.