The Deepening Mystery Of A Missing Air Force Jet -- Pilot, Plane Vanished Over Colorado Last Week

Capt. Craig David Button's fully armed attack jet peeled away from formation last week over the Arizona desert. That the Air Force knows for certain.

Officials believe his plane headed 800 miles northeast toward the mountains of Colorado. And they believe it made course corrections that no autopilot could make before it disappeared from radar.

Since Button disappeared last Wednesday during the training flight, answers about what happened have been as hard to find as his A-10 Thunderbolt. The Air Force fears it crashed into a mountain, but because no plane and no body have been found, officials continue to look into Button's background for any possible clues to the mystery.

"Whenever you have an aircraft disappear, in an effort to try to find it, you look at every single aspect of the flight, including the history of the pilot," said Capt. Andrew White, spokesman at Arizona's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, command post for the search. "You don't leave any stone unturned." The investigation would include questions about Button's "flying performance" at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, White said.

Button, 32, had yearned to be a pilot ever since he was young, said his father, Richard Button of Massapequa, N.Y. Indeed, the elder Button recalled yesterday that his son was flying Piper Cubs and Cessnas before he had learned to drive a car.

He is holding out hope that his son ejected safely and has found shelter in the mountains. Rescuers concentrated their search near the 12,467-foot New York Mountain, about 20 miles southwest of Vail, Colo.

"We're going all out for him," said Air Force Capt. Leo Devine, a Pentagon spokesman.

"He knows how to survive," Richard Button said. "He not only has a survival kit, he's a strong, smart man. A live wire, wide awake."

Air Force officials remained baffled yesterday as to why Button's plane, armed with four bombs, veered off from a formation of A-10s heading to the Barry M. Goldwater bombing range near Gila Bend, Ariz., on a training mission.

Not far from the bombing range, Button's A-10, a type nicknamed the "Warthog" for its homely appearance, dropped out of the three-plane formation, the Pentagon said, executed a sharp turn and was intermittently tracked on radar headed northeast into Colorado - 775 miles off course at its last plotting.

A motorist on Interstate 70 near New York Mountain had reported seeing smoke coming from the slope last week. The location corresponds closely to the plane's last radar plotting.

An Air Force spokesman said the transponder on Button's plane was turned off - routine for a formation flight, where the lead plane's transponder would be on - not enabling Federal Aviation Administration and military radar to make a positive electronic identification by tail number.

Turning off the radar transponder would not have disabled any emergency beacons on the plane, said David North, editor in chief of Aviation Week & Space Technology.

Carrying four 500-pound Mark 82 bombs due to be dropped on training runs in the desert, Button's plane was traveling at 380 mph when it lost contact with its mates and wandered off.

North raised the possibility that Button went off course because of oxygen deprivation. If the squadron were flying above 15,000 feet, North said it is possible he suffered from the disorienting effects of the thin oxygen at high altitude.

The Air Force refused to say at what altitude Button was flying. It also rejected speculation that Button was trying to steal the plane.

And his father also said that made no sense.

"It's a crazy idea because my son is a career man dedicated to the Air Force," said Button, a retired Air Force pilot who taught gunnery tactics during World War II, re-entered active dury during the Korean War and flew C-130 cargo planes from Saigon as the Tet Offensive raged farther north.

North said there wouldn't be much Button could do with a stolen A-10. The plane is slow, heavy, out of production and not used by any foreign air force.

Officials last week said the pilot could have become incapacitated and could have accidentally activated the plane's autopilot mechanism, but the plane made course corrections not possible if it were on autopilot, White said. He also could have ejected, but no parachute was seen by his wingmates and none has been found by rescuers.

Button became an officer through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps while he attended the New York Institute of Technology on Long Island. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, graduating in 1990.

His Air Force career was a typical one, said Capt. Tara Daniels, a spokeswoman at Laughlin, where Button was based for most of six years in the force.

He earned several decorations, all typical for someone with his length of service, Daniels said.