“We’re initiating a search and rescue,” the dispatcher said, her keyboard clicking as she burned through her agency alert list to activate the region’s search and rescue operation.

The tourists, alarm on their faces, talked softly as they continued scouring the distant mountains where the plane had disappeared.

One of the tourists whispered a prayer as Palmer wondered if anyone on the plane would survive.

-Chapter 41-

Auburn, Washington / Panama City, Florida

At that moment, across the state in a Seattle suburb some 12 miles from SeaTac Airport, operators at the Seattle Air Route Traffic Control Center were growing concerned.

The Center worked the airspace for Washington, Oregon, northern California, and parts of Idaho and Montana. After issuing a mayday over Ice Lake County, a twin-engine Star-Hawk Nomad out of Canada had vanished from the Center’s radar. It had been bound for Seattle with five passengers and two crew members.

Within minutes of losing contact with the aircraft, Seattle Center was alerted by Ice Lake County emergency dispatch. Witnesses had reported seeing a small plane, maybe a twin-prop, go down over mountainous terrain in the rugged Ghost Ridge area.

Seattle Center’s duty manager notified the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall Air Force Base, near Panama City, Florida. The AFRCC operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The center directly ties into the Federal Aviation Administration’s alerting system and the United States Mission Control Center, which had the lead over all search and rescue operations in the country.

Colonel Tim Udall, the senior officer in charge of the U.S. west sector at Tyndall, had calls to make, aviation authorities, Homeland Security, the FBI and others.

He stared by alerting Fairchild Air Force Base, near Spokane to initiate a search and rescue mission. Two helicopter crews from the 36th Rescue Squadron lifted off for the North Cascades to concentrate on the Ghost Ridge area. The crews were skilled at high-altitude operations in areas inaccessible by ground vehicle.

The band of storms over the region was weakening fast, which helped.

But there were problems.

The Star-Hawk Nomad was not emitting a GPS signal. If the crew had a device, it had not been activated. And while the aircraft was equipped with a 121.5 MHz emergency locator transmitter (ELT), a recent airworthiness information bulletin advised of potential failures in the ELT system for models used in several small aircraft, including the twin-engine Star-Hawk Nomad.

At least they had a general idea of where to start looking, Udall thought as he consulted a detailed map of the region again marveling at what was a large and rugged part of the country.

Udall then alerted the Ice Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

His call was patched through to Deputy Melissa Watson, commander of Ice Lake’s Special Operations Search and Rescue Unit, which was responsible for search and rescue in the county.

-Chapter 42-

Ice Lake, Washington / Panama City, Florida