The whereabouts of an Arkansas Forestry Commission pilot reported missing Friday afternoon are still unknown, commission spokesman Adriane Barnes said Saturday.
The pilot was identified as Jake Harrell, 34, a part time Forestry Commission pilot since 2005, a full-time officer with the North Little Rock Police Department and a member of the Arkansas Air National Guard 188th Fighter Wing.
Search efforts in western Arkansas continued throughout the night Friday and all day Saturday, Barnes said, adding that 10 different crews, as well as volunteers and other workers, were looking for Harrell.
Low visibility due to fog and rain were complicating the search from the air, she said. Several ground crews have been searching on foot and with all-terrain vehicles, according to a news release from the commission.
A news release late Saturday said that with the possibility of inclement weather today, officials are studying ways to adjust the search so it can be continued safely.
The commission has been contacting Harrell’s cellphone company to track down his last location.
“The thing is, he went missing in an area with really bad cellphone reception,” Barnes said.
Harrell last contacted the Forestry Commission at 1:11 p.m. Friday during an aerial wildfire survey of the Ouachita National Forest. He took off in a single-engine Cessna 210 from Oden and was scheduled to land in Wickes. The plane is small and an off-white color with orange stripes on the wings, Barnes said.
Barnes told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Friday that pilots report back to the commission every 30 minutes as a safety precaution and that Harrell had not indicated any problems before contact with him was lost. She also said that planes are inspected daily.
Harrell has flown that route many times, the news release said.
“He’s a very experienced individual,” Barnes said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 02/02/2014