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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Monday, April 4, 2011 INCIDENTS Grand Canyon NP Search For Missing Pilot Enters Fourth Week Members of the Civil Air Patrol's Nevada Wing joined the ongoing three-week-long search for J.R. last Thursday. The NPS and Coconino County Sherriff's Office have been searching for J.R. since determining that he and his plane were last seen on Friday, March 11th, at Grand Canyon Airport. An NPS helicopter and airplane have flown about 2,000 air miles over the search area, originally estimated at 600 square miles, over the course of the search. No signs of J.R. or his plane or a crash site have yet been found. With the search area thoroughly covered by the available technology and weather worsening, search and rescue personnel last week turned their efforts toward sorting and analyzing the clues investigators had been gathering while the search progressed. Searchers and Air Force Rescue Coordination Center technical experts met last Tuesday to analyze those investigative clues alongside the latest interpretations of the technical data. Through their analysis, SAR personnel were able to define smaller areas within the larger search zone that could be searched again with more advanced technology. On Thursday, members of CAP's Nevada Wing used a Surrogate Predator aircraft to search six areas in the park's Fossil Corridor identified as probable areas where J.R.'s plane may have gone down. The CAP crew was to complete flights over the six search areas on Friday and provide the Surrogate Predator footage to park staff for review. The Surrogate Predator's sensor ball, mounted underneath the wing of a CAP Cessna 182, provides high resolution imagery. The areas where CAP pilots focused their efforts were based on FAA radar track and cell phone signal analysis, as well as visual sightings. This is the first time a Surrogate Predator has been used for a search mission, which CAP had previously employed to help train soldiers and airmen for combat operations overseas. For more information on the use of the Surrogate Predator in the search for Mr. J.R., please contact Colonel John Varljen, CAP, at 928-595-0206. [Maureen Oltrogge, Public Affairs Officer] OTHER NEWS The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/): Frederick Law Olmsted NHS - Frederick Law Olmsted NHS bid farewell to its famed “Olmsted Elm” last Wednesday. This historically significant but failing tree was cut down because it had become a hazard, but is to be replaced with a genetic clone. Student Conservation Association - The Student Conservation Association has launched a major new initiative to build green career pipelines, bolster its recruiting of under-represented populations, and double the number of young people it engages each year to 10,000 by 2020. Photo. Legislative and Congressional Affairs - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings and the status of legislation pertinent to the NPS. Bills to enlarge Petersburg were introduced in the House and Senate last week, as was a bill for a feasibility study for a new site in Oklahoma. Intermountain Region - John Lujan has been named superintendent of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. He is scheduled to begin his new assignment on April 18th. Photo. Southeast Region - Patrick Kenney has been selected as the new superintendent of Cape Lookout National Seashore. He will assume his new duties in early May. Photo. * * * * Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of Communications and the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov). --- ### --- |