New Mexico Searchers Scanning Wilderness For Missing Colorado Plane

(CBS4) -- New Mexico authorities have launched several aircraft in an effort to find a Colorado-based plane that disappeared late Thursday afternoon. The plane, last seen refueling and taking off from the Santa Fe Airport at 5:49 p.m., reportedly had a pilot and passenger on board. They have not been identified.

Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane at 6:01 p.m. A beacon pinged its last location approximately one mile south of Tererro, New Mexico, in the Pecos Wilderness.

Initial search efforts Friday concentrated on that area but did not find any sign of the missing plane, according to New Mexico State Police spokesman Dusty Francisco.

An expanded search resumed Saturday morning at dawn. No sign of the plane has been found.

Searchers "are continuing an intensive air search with multiple sorties," Francisco told CBS4.

The New Mexico Army Nat'l Guard, the New Mexico Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, and a helicopter from NMSP are involved in the search operations. A ground team from New Mexico Search and Rescue is on standby to respond when and if the search aircraft locate the missing plane.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Allen Kenitzer told CBS4 an alert notice was broadcast Friday regarding a single-engine Grumman AA5, commonly referred to as a 'Cheetah,' that was reported missing by its owner late Friday night, possibly in the area of northeastern New Mexico. Kenitzer added that the FAA has not received any information about the plane dropping off radar.

The missing plane is based at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield, according to FAA records.

Online flight tracking records at FlightAware.com show the plane recently flew from its home airport, once for four hours on September 23 and again for a half hour on September 24, and returned to the same airport each time.

The FlightAware system, however, does not reflect a departure or flight on September 26.

The missing plane was registered to American Aircraft Brokers, LLC, of Englewood on June 24 of this year, per FAA records. It had owners in Texas prior to this most recent registration.

FAA records indicate the missing plane was built in 1976.