Officials search Oklahoma, Texas for missing plane

Saturday, January 15th 2005, 12:54 pm

By: News On 6

TINKER, AFB., Okla. (AP) _ Civil Air Patrol volunteers from Oklahoma and Texas are searching both states for a missing single-engine plane that disappeared during a flight to Shawnee.

Civil Air Patrol officials at Tinker Air Force Base say Doctor Jack Nolan of Muskogee departed Paris, Texas, yesterday en route to Shawnee. Major Charles Newcomb says Nolan has not contacted friends or family since leaving the Paris airport.

Officials say Nolan was the only person in the plane.

The missing plane is a blue and white Kitfox Lite Squared -- a single-engine, two-seat airplane.

Newcomb says air traffic control radar data shows the last known position of the plane was near Gerty in Hughes County.

Two specially equipped airplanes are searching the route from Paris to Shawnee and the area around the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. A Civil Air Patrol ground search team and Hughes County authorities are conducting ground searches.