ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 28, 1996 TAG: 9608280061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, W.VA.
SOURCE: Associated Press
Nine months after a small plane heading to Virginia disappeared on a snowy mountain, a $10,000 reward offered to anyone who finds the plane remains unclaimed.
``Individuals and small groups have put on searches of their own, but nothing has turned up,'' said Don McCourt, director of emergency services in Webster County.
``We don't have any plans. If we got a lead, something would be done. But now we're waiting until hunting season to get more people in the woods and see what turns up,'' he said Monday.
The twin-engine plane was flying low in fog with mountains approaching when flight controllers in Elkins lost radio contact last Nov. 28.
The pilot, 31-year-old Colin Cambell, was returning to Lynchburg, Va., from Braxton County Airport in Sutton, where he had dropped off a passenger he had picked up that morning in Raleigh, N.C.
The initial search on the ground and by helicopter was complicated because the plane was white and went down in snow-covered mountains, and the pine trees on the mountains act as cover.
Also, the plane did not send out an emergency signal.
Cambell's employer, Casey Industrial of Albany, Ore., an industrial construction company, offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who finds the plane.
McCourt said the plane remains a topic of conversation in Webster County.
``People have theories about what could have happened,'' McCourt said. ``A lot of it is just people looking for the reward.''
McCourt said one of Cambell's brothers has stopped by several times during recent months.
Casey spokeswoman Chris Sturdevand said several employees have organized their own searches.
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