Efforts to Identify Suspected Jet Stalled

Air Force crews in helicopters again surveyed the Colorado mountain peak where an A-10 warplane that disappeared three weeks ago is believed to have crashed, continuing to assess when and how to send a ground team to the treacherous site. Half a foot of freshly fallen snow on the 12,500-foot-high area obscured many of the plane fragments that were spotted Sunday. The discovery southwest of Vail ended a frenzied search that began April 2 when Capt. Craig Button, for reasons still unknown, pulled his A-10 out of a training mission in Arizona and headed northeast into Colorado. Air Force officials were hoping to get a four-person search team to the site briefly and confirm whether the metal debris is indeed the wreckage of the missing plane.