Two Day Search Reveals Frustrating -- But Happy -- Ending

After a 48-hour search in strong winds and rain, rescue workers have determined a plane did not go down Monday night in northwest Ohio. In fact -- and we say this only because the story has a happy ending -- the whole event was triggered by a comedy of errors.

It all started when an ELT transmitter began sending its emergency code from a location somewhere in Fulton County, OH. The transmitter wasn't in the tailcone of an aircraft, however, but instead in the back of a delivery truck, still in its shipping package, heading for delivery somewhere in Toledo.

Adding to the confusion was a well-intentioned commercial pilot flying over Ohio, who picked up a distress call from a small plane near Charlotte, NC. However, the pilot believed the call was coming from northwest Ohio, according to the Toledo Blade.

The FAA had also reported to a division of the Ohio Department of Transportation the agency had lost contact with an aircraft.

"It's kind of an incredible group of coincidences," said Chief Master Sgt. Gary Emery, of the US Air Force Special Operations Command Headquarters in Florida.

It was also a false alarm that kept some searching for a sign of the missing aircraft for 24 hours straight, and involved the Ohio Civil Air Patrol, the Highway Patrol, numerous sheriff's deputies, two dozen volunteers and two medical helicopters.

The situation seemed odd from the start, as no one had actually reported a missing pilot, and all filed flight plans had been completed. The FAA report of a missing aircraft also proved hard to pin down, as it was later determined there had been no reports of an aircraft falling off of Cleveland radar.

The commercial pilot who reported the distress call had actually heard another commercial pilot flying in the south, passing along the distress call out of North Carolina -- believed to be from the pilot of a Cessna 150 (file photo of type, right) who made an uneventful emergency landing in a field about 30 miles southeast of Charlotte.

A hard-to-pinpoint ELT signal further added to the confusion. Searchers believed the weather was interfering with the signal -- making it appear to be moving -- but as it turns out that was because the delivery truck it was in was also moving.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov