Post date: Jan 30, 2013 4:23:16 PM
Italian and American search and rescue teams continue hunt for missing F-16 pilot and plane.
RAVENNA, ITALY (JANUARY 30, 2013) (REUTERS) - Italian and American search teams continued their search for a missing U.S. pilot and his F-16 fighter jet on Wednesday (January 30) off the Italian coast, with heavy fog hampering their efforts.
The American F-16 jet went missing with its pilot on Monday (January 28) in the northern Adriatic Sea and Italian coast guard units have been running the search operation from a central command in Ravenna."The Americans have continued to provide really useful assistance, particularly with air surveillance, which never stopped even overnight" said Coastguard Rear AdmiralFrancesco Saverio Ferrara, the man in charge of the search operation.
"And fighter jets, probably from the same unit of the missing plane, will most likely join this group of surveillance planes" Ferrara told Reuters from his office in Ravenna.
Ferrara said the most important thing for his team was to find the body of the missing pilot.
"The plane as far as we know was not armed. This is good news but obviously are main energy is put into to trying to find the body of the pilot" he said.
Some fragments of the plane were found by a shipping vessel on Tuesday (January 29) and search efforts are concentrating in the area.
"We will continue searching until we have recovered the body of the pilot and a substantial part of the plane which will then be investigated by the right authorities" Ferrara said.
The pilot has been named as Captain Lucas Gruenther.