Retired Oklahoma Physician And His Kit Fox Missing For Days

Where is Dr. Jack Nolen? He's been missing now for a week, after his Kitfox disappeared from radar on a flight from Paris, TX, to Shawnee, OK last Friday. The aircraft disappeared from radar near Gerty, OK and the 72-year old doctor hasn't been seen since.

The manager of the Paris, TX, airport told reporters Nolen appeared to be having GPS trouble the morning before he disappeared.

"The gas tanks on the plane would have given him considerable flying time," his ex-wife, Susan McColley, told the Muskogee Phoenix. "He could have flown a long way after they lost him on the radar. No telling where he could be."

So the Civil Air Patrol is now searching an area 2,300 square miles wide, hoping for some sign of Nolen or his Kitfox (file photo of type, below).

Dr. Nolen was missed in church last Sunday. "He's got his spot where we know to look for him every Sunday morning," Pastor Kevin Tully with St Paul United Methodist Church told KOTV. "I just wanted to make a special effort so instead of doing what we normally do to end a service, I asked that everybody take a moment in their seat or come to the alter rail if they wished to offer a prayer for him."

Later, Pastor Tully told the Tulsa TV station, "Whatever has happened already has, but we pray and we're confident that he's in God's care and we hope for the good and happy ending that we wish for."

Nolen's homebuilt, two-place Kitfox is blue and white with a red spinner on the prop. Authorities involved in the search said the aircraft is equipped with a ballistic parachute system.

FMI: www.okwg.cap.gov