Amador County – A search will continue today for an airplane that dropped sharply in altitude Wednesday afternoon, and then fell off radar in southeastern Amador County.

About 6 a.m. Thursday, members of the Amador County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue Nordic Team began a search of an area identified by the Civil Air Patrol as a possible location of interest in a suspected plane crash.

Undersheriff Jim Wegner issued a release Thursday night from the Sheriff’s Office, saying the “location was identified based upon their analysis of radar data and experience with past aircraft accidents. The search is being conducted with both ground and snowmobile teams. The identified area is heavily wooded and currently covered with 6-10 feet of snow.”

“A California Highway Patrol Helicopter assisted with both a detailed and expanded search of the area,” the release said. “Additionally, several Civil Air Patrol aircraft have searched the region. At this time no evidence of the aircraft has been located.”

At 8:13 p.m. Wednesday, “the Amador County Sheriff’s Office was advised of an overdue aircraft which was last identified as flying through Amador County” at 3:47 p.m. “The missing aircraft is a Lancair, composite, single engine airplane. The aircraft was piloted by Robert Henderson “Budge” Brown Senior, 78, of Gardnerville, Nevada.”

The Sheriff’s release said the “aircraft reportedly left Minden, Nevada at approximately 3:30 p.m. en route to Tracy. The aircraft, which was tracked via radar, reportedly rapidly lost altitude from 15,000 feet to 12,000 feet and then fell off radar at 11,000 feet in the southeastern area of Amador County within the El Dorado National Forest. Brown is reportedly a very experienced pilot having flown this route hundreds of times.”

As of 6:47 p.m. Thursday, the release said “there has been no emergency radio traffic from the pilot, and no Emergency Locator Transmitter signals have been received from the aircraft. A search of local airports has been conducted and the aircraft was not located.”

The search will be expanded and continue today.

Brown is a philanthropist, and owner of Cleavage Creek Winery, which he purchased to raise money to fight breast cancer, after his wife, Arlene, passed away from breast cancer in 2005. The wine’s labels have photos of women who have survived breast cancer, and the business has raised 10s of thousands of dollars for the cause.

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