SEQUIM — Authorities were expected to continue searching today for a plane with an experienced pilot that went missing Monday en route from Tonasket to Sequim.
Ten search planes, each of which contained observers to scan the terrain, continued Saturday scouring the potential flight path of pilot Edward Jeffko, 72, of Tonasket, state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Nisha Marvel said late Saturday afternoon.
The approximately 24 emergency personnel continued to concentrate — by air only — on the Cascade Mountains and Strait of Juan de Fuca, she said.
“They don’t have any new leads,” Marvel said.
“There’s no emergency beacon or anything to really go by except knowing where he was supposed to land and where he took off from,” she added.
Jeffko took off alone from Tonasket Municipal Airport in north-central Washington at 6:30 a.m. Monday but never arrived in Sequim to visit family members.
He did not have radio contact with anyone during the flight, Marvel said.
Jeffko is the father of James Jeffko, 47, and grandfather of Joe Jeffko, 23, co-owners of Fresh Mix Grill-Mart in Sequim.
James Jeffko urged travelers Saturday to keep an eye out for his father’s white-with-yellow-trim, single-engine Glasair, which Jeffko said might be hard to spot.
“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said.
Family members continued Saturday to ground-search areas near the Tonasket airport, he added.
Another son, Paul Jeffko, said Saturday his father had made the 75-minute flight from Tonasket to Sequim “hundreds of times” but may have taken a different route than normal.
“The wild card is that on Monday morning, the weather was a little bit rough on the west side,” Paul Jeffko said.
“That has really exasperated the search because the normal flight path might not have been taken,” he added.
Edward Jeffko had not filed a flight plan before taking off in his home-built kit plane.
The Department of Transportation, the Civil Air Patrol and Washington Air Search and Rescue set up a search base at Pangborn Memorial Airport in Wenatchee.
Douglas County emergency personnel also are participating in the search, Marvel said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
