An Arkansas man was killed when his plane crashed in the Ouachita Mountains in southeast Oklahoma, officials reported.
Elmer Ray Broadbent, 71, of Heber Springs was found with his plane on Thursday by Oklahoma county and state emergency responders. He was the pilot and only person aboard.
Relatives reported that Broadbent departed in his Piper Pa-28 aircraft from Searcy on Monday, saidLynn Lunsford, Federal Aviation Administration midstates public affairs manager. Lunsford said the plane was heading to Elk City, Okla.
“Family members reported the plane missing on Tuesday after the pilot failed to check in and was unreachable,”Lunsford said. “He did not file a flight plan or obtain a weather briefing and was not in contact with air traffic control at any time.”
Lunsford said the single-engine plane crashed in the Ouachita Mountains nearly 15 miles southeast ofthe Talihina Municipal Airport. Lunsford said aeronautical charts for the area note, “Rapidly rising terrain. Use caution during periods of low ceiling and visibility.”
FAA investigators were on the way to the scene and theNational Transportation Safety Board was notified Thursday, Lunsford said.
LeFlore County Sheriff Rob Seale released a statement about the crash on his agency’s website at 2 p.m. Thursday.
“The plane and pilot have been found just inside the Pushmataha County line,” Seale said. “We have confirmed that the pilot is deceased.”
The Oklahoma Wing of the Civil Air Patrol joined county and state officials during the search on Thursday.
Capt. Rick Rutledge, public information officer with the wing, said the organization used a receiver device known as an L-Per to track signals sent by an analog emergency locator transmitter from the aircraft.
The region where the plane crashed was a radar dead zone, Rutledge said. He said officials had trouble tracking the plane’s flight pattern. He said rescue searchers had a area 10 to 15 miles wide and 40 to 50 miles long to search for the plane on the basis of initial information.
The L-per device used by searchers for the first time on Thursday helped pinpoint the location, Rutledge said. He said it narrowed the search area to 2square miles.
Searchers in Arkansas’ Madison County also used a L-per device to locate a plane that crashed on Monday. The plane was found on Tuesday. Ivan and Adina Williams of Pryor, Okla., were killed in the crash.
Rutledge said it the L-per device is very effective in finding planes but it is rarely used.
“It is different that in the last week we have dealt with several incidents between Arkansas and Oklahoma,” Rutledge said. “In most cases crashes happen near populated areas.”
In those cases, eyewitnesses are able to help searchers locate plan crashes in populated areas, Rutledge said.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigates fatal plane crashes, Lunsford said.
Keith Holloway, board spokesman, said when the board investigates crashes, it sends an investigator to the scene.
““A request for air traffic control information, radar data and any witness accounts will be made,” Holloway said.
An investigator will research the crash at the scene for two to three days, Holloway said. He said the board does not determine cause at the scene. He said an entire investigation can take 12 to 18 months to complete.
The board is also investigating the Williamses’ plane crash.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/25/2013