
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 14, 1990                   TAG: 9005140233
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANASSAS                                LENGTH: Short

SEARCH FAILS TO FIND PLANE WITH 6 ABOARD

Three days of searching have failed to turn up a trace of a missing plane and its six occupants.

About 200 people and 17 airplanes scoured heavily forested terrain near Fredericksburg and Winchester Sunday, said Civil Air Patrol spokesman Mick Bennett.

On Saturday, the searchers covered thousands of square miles and chased three false leads.

"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 signal was traced to a helicopter at Fort A.P. Hill.

The maroon and white Cessna 210, which took off early Thursday from Manteo, N.C., was reported missing by the passengers' relatives Thursday afternoon. The search was delayed by bad weather and began Friday morning.

The men were returning from an annual fishing trip on the Outer Banks of North Carolina when the plane disappeared. Authorities believe the plane's last radio transmission was near Richmond.

Authorities have not identified the occupants, all of whom were from the Washington, D.C., area.

by CNB