Searchers Hunt Pilot Missing Since Friday

More than 20 aircraft and six ground teams continued their search Sunday for a retired Army aviator who has been missing since he took off Friday from Van Nuys Airport in a rented single-engine plane.

Retired Lt. Col. Norman Jackson, 40, of the San Fernando Valley, left the Van Nuys airfield about 5 p.m. Friday in a rented Cessna 172 for a trip he often took along the coast, said Lt. Col. M. Robert Fowler of the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary-Civil Air Patrol.

The search of the Southland area began Saturday morning after Jackson’s wife notified the Federal Aviation Administration that her husband was missing, Fowler said.

Jackson, an experienced pilot and Vietnam War veteran who has logged thousands of hours in the air, was probably alone in the small plane, Fowler said. The plane typically can carry about three hours’ worth of fuel and was equipped with an electronic locator transmitter, which sends out signals if a hard landing occurs, he said.

No such signals have been received, Fowler said.

While the aircraft searched for the plane, six ground crews were checking recorded transmissions from local air-traffic control towers in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Camarillo and Oxnard, Fowler said. Jackson may have radioed controllers his plane’s tail number to get permission to enter restricted air space, he said.

“They’re over there listening to those tapes and praying the magic number will come up,” Fowler said.

If the volunteer crews can pinpoint Jackson’s location through the tapes, they will be able to narrow down the area being searched, Fowler said.

Jackson, chief operating officer of a construction company, has five children, Fowler said.