Search-and-rescue planes buzzed Alaska and the Yukon over the weekend in search of a missing Whitehorse-bound single-engine plane.
California pilot Gary Petigler, 68, and wife Ingrid, 66, lifted off in a red-and-white Beech V-35 from Wolf Lake, Alaska, around 5 p.m. on Saturday.
When the plane failed to show up in Whitehorse, airport officials alerted search-and-rescue units in Victoria.
Two Canadian Forces Buffalo, one Cormorant helicopter and two volunteer civil search-and-rescue aircraft were dispatched to comb the flight path.
“We’ve been searching since Saturday night, and so far we haven’t found anything,” said Cpl. Faralynn Hickey, a spokesman for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre.
Seven US aircraft are searching the Alaskan side.
Rescuers are gathering information from the couple’s cellphone provider.
“Whether it was roaming, what tower it was hitting, that sort of information,” said Cpt. David Burneau, also of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre.
The information should help rescuers to “narrow down” the search area, said Burneau.
The plane is believed to be in Alaska.
The aircraft could have been plotting a direct route to Whitehorse, or it may have been following the highway. Rescuers are searching both routes.
The plane was in Whitehorse earlier this month.
Before landing in Wolf Lake, the aircraft had travelled to the northern coast of the Yukon. (Tristin Hopper)