New tools in search efforts for missing plane at Grand Canyon

GRAND CANYON, AZ - Civil Air Patrol joins the search for a missing pilot and employs new technology to enhance the search at the Grand Canyon.

On Thursday, CAP joined the National Park Service and Coconino County Sherriff’s Office in the search for Joseph Radford, whose plane is believed to have crashed in the Grand Canyon National Park on March 11, said Maureen Oltrogge, spokeswoman for the Grand Canyon National Park.

Oltrogge said an NPS helicopter has covered 600 square miles looking for signs of Radford and his plane.

Search and rescue personnel have been working to define smaller areas within the search zone that could be searched more thoroughly.

On Tuesday, members of CAP’s Neveda wing used a surrogate predator aircraft to search six areas, Oltrogge said.

According to a Grand Canyon news release, this is the first time the aircraft has been used for a search mission. Up until this point the technology was limited to training soldiers and airmen for combat operations overseas.

Oltrogge said the Surrogate Predator’s sensor ball is mounted underneath the wing of CAP Cessna 182 and provides high resolution images of its targeted areas.

Pilots of the aircraft will focus on areas based on FAA radar track, cell phone signal analysis and visual sightings.