Crews use remote television cameras to search Marvine Lake
Aircraft debris found, but not missing men or crash site
MEEKER, Colo. (AP) Searchers on Saturday used an underwater camera and depth finder to look for a single-engine airplane believed to be in a murky, mossy lake in the Flat Tops Wilderness.
Officials focused their search in Upper Marvine Lake after a fisherman last week found a small bag with clothes and an airplane fender. The Rio Blanco Sheriff’s Office said the fender came from a Piper Cherokee missing since May 29 with four Reno, Nev., men aboard.
The 80-acre lake is at 9,300 feet, about 23 miles east of Meeker and 135 miles west of Denver
A Summit County high-elevation dive team was sent to help, but freezing temperatures in the 70- to 90-foot deep lake prevented them from diving, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement.
Searchers have found no other sign of the airplane, which disappeared after stopping for fuel in Meeker.
On board were Richard ”Dan” Filippe, 39, the pilot, and passengers Ross ”Roscoe” Jones, 42, Jon Peters and his brother Mark Peters, according to a Jones family friend.
Searchers have not picked up a signal from the plane’s emergency locator transmitter. Norm Wiemeyer of National Transportation Safety Board said the radio beacon could not be detected if it were underwater.
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