Pentagon mysteriously loses a plane and that is not in a conflict situation. Sri Lanka during the Eelam war III has lost 16 aircraft due to various reasons. These losses raise many concerns
It was routine training exercise and Captain Craig Button, an experienced pilot who had flown scores of missions in the A-10 bomber, was ready to fulfil his duties to perfection. Or so it seemed.
When he lifted off from the airbase in Tucson, Arizona, for the exercise 11 days ago, flying conditions were perfect. Nothing seemed amiss.
But the pilot and the plane, one of America's most lethal strike bombers, have vanished into thin air, leaving the country's military chiefs contemplating the biggest aviation mystery they can remember.
The military is understandably concerned: the plane was equipped with four 5001b bombs and the means to drop them on any target around the world.
Inevitably, speculation is rife about the pilot's intended destination — and whether Button, a popular figure with a passion for motorbikes, music and skiing, was as stable as air force psychiatrists believed.
As one of the biggest man hunts in American military history continued yesterday to try to find the pilot, the worst possible scenario had crept into the minds of senior officials: could Button have been 'bought'' by terrorists offering him a fortune in return for stealing the $9m.craft and its deadly payload?
There was nothing in Button's demeanour to suggest he had plans in his mind as he took to the sky in formation with two other A-10 Warthogs. He went through his pre-flight checking routne in his usual meticulous manner.
His flying pedigree was impeccable: the son of a pilot, Button was born in New York state and qualified as a fighter pilot in the reserves before joining the air force six years ago.
He had medals for good conduct. Friends and family say he lived for the air force. "He is an all-Americal boy, upstanding and patriotic," said John Conroy, who has known Button since he was born."He's as straight as an arrow."
But doubts began to emerge after the three bombers flew in formation at 6,500 ft. A link-up with a tanker for mid-air refuelling went smoothly. Then the aircraft turned north-west, heading for the Barry Goldwater bombing range.
Group commanders realised , something was amiss as the planes lined up to approach the :mge: Button, 33, suddenly hanked and roared off in the ,wrong direction. Astonished the two other pilots craned their -necksto try to see what was wrong. Button vanished over the horizon.
Witness reported seeing the aircraft shoot past them in a blur over Arizona. Ground controllers were in a panic. Some thought the pilot must have had a heart attack and flicked on the automatic pilot before slipping unconscious. But reports of sightings soon started coming in.
After flying northeast for an hour, witnesses spotted Button's plane heading south from Eagle towards the ski resort of Aspen in Colorado. For the next hour, the plane looped around Aspen before disappearing near the foot of the New York Mountains south of Vail, 800 miles from its original flight path.
A search for the aircraft was immediately launched by the air force, using U-2 spy planes that can detect infra red heat. ~Reconnaissance satellites photographed hundreds of square miles of Colorado searching for signs of wreckage or an explosion. Helicopters flew low over the ground looking for signals that might have been missed. They found nothing.
Throughout the plane's journey Button maintained radio silence and kept the aircraft transponder switch off. He did not eject - the homing beacon in his seat had not been activated — and the plane disappeared with at least 200 miles of fuel left.
One theory is the possibility that the bombs Button was carrying might have exploded in a crash. Seismographic sensors in the region have revealed that explosions were reported in the area on the day the A-10 disappeared.
''The trouble is that, at the same time the plane was reported missing, there was an earthquake along the San Andreas fault, which set off all the sensors on the flight path of the plane," said Keith Shepherd, an air force spokesman.
Adding to the confusion, at the time that Button's plane disappeared, an SR-71 Blackbird spy plane was flying east along the southern Arizona border, which set off sonic booms in the area.
Last week the air force called in the Office of Special Investigations, which normally handles fraud and counterintelligence, to check on Button's background. So far, they have turned up a profile of a highly qualified and conventional air force officer.
After three years as an instructor, Button began flying an A-10 in February and was scheduled to be transferred to Germany in July. '
'He was A-okay stable. Didn't seem to be under any stress," said Button's father, Richard, who trained pilots during the second world war. ''We're hoping he baled out . . . There's no evidence that he didn't." The simplest explanation is that the aircraft crashed in the snow and will be recovered after the spring thaw.
Yet this does not account for the erratic course, which the air force believes shows that Button was controlling the flight until the end.
Speculation of more sinister motives for the disappearance are rife, both at the Pentagon and among amateur military sleuths.
Some have suggested that the aircraft may have been hijacked; others believe that Button is a member of a right wing militia group.
Another explanation offered is that Button may have stolen his aircraft, copying the recent thriller film Broken Arrow, in which John Travolta hijacks a nuclear armed bomber.
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