Search for missing plane reminds searchers of 2007 UND plane crash nearby: Updated: 5:47 p.m.

"The first thing that came to our minds," said Todd County Chief Deputy Bryan Tebben Tuesday, was the Oct. 23, 2007 crash of a twin-engine Piper Seminole near Browerville, Minn.

That night accident, caused by a Canada goose hitting the Seminole, killed UND student Adam Ostapenko, 20, of Duluth, and UND aviation school instructor Annette Klosterman, 22, of Seattle, who were on a routine training flight from St. Paul to Grand Forks.

Where the Seminole went down two years ago in swamp near Browerville is only 10 miles across Todd County from Staples, the town Lindberg was flying over when he last was heard from, in a text message to his father. Lindberg was flying from Lakeville, Minn., to Hallock.

"So when the initial call came in from the northeast corner of the county about Lindberg, it brought back memories of that tragic incident," Tebben said.

That 2007 crash was the first such fatal plane crash in the county that he can remember in his 30 years with the sheriff's department, Tebben said.

On Friday night, Andrew Lindberg, a new pilot, was flying from the Lakeville airport to Hallock, where his father was waiting to pick him up to go deer hunting near the family's farm in Kittson County.

Lindberg's cell phone text message to Bill Lindbergh, in which he told his father he was over Staples, was picked up by a cell tower between Staples and Wadena about 6:30 p.m. Friday.

That's the only starting point for the search and no other leads so far have turned up, said Maj. Al Pabon, spokesman for the Minnesota Civil Air Patrol that completed its fourth day of searches Tuesday at sunset.

The search for Lindberg now is concentrated mostly north and west of Staples, but over a large area Pabon described as "from Fosston to St. Cloud, from Wadena to Hallock."

It included 18 Cessna planes, each with a crew of three: a pilot, a scanner using the radio to keep in touch with the command center, and an observer eyeballing the ground. Each airplane, flying at 1,000 to 2,000 feet, follows a grid pattern laid out for the search, Pabon said. One larger airplane equipped with a new "Archer" system of computer-aided photography, also is in the search. The Minnesota State Patrol helicopter also has been used.

Five ground crews, using information from the air crews, checked out possible leads on foot, especially in the Nimrod area north of Staples.

It's one of the largest CAP air search efforts in years in the state, said Pabon, who also remembers the search for Ostapenko and Klosterman two years ago. "I was on that mission," he said Tuesday.

Bird strikes on aircraft is a growing problem, according to Federal Aviation Administration officials testimony this summer at a Congressional hearing after the crash landing on the Hudson River of an Airbus A320 jet after it hit a flock of Canada geese.

For small aircraft, flying at night, the high-flying geese can be especially a problem, because the pilot can't see them, Pabon said. "Absolutely, it's one of the risks," he said of flying at night across Minnesota.

Using DNA evidence found on the plane, the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the 2007 crash of the UND Piper was caused by a Canada goose hitting a part of the plane that "caused the airplane to become uncontrollable." The pilot could not have seen the goose during the night flight, the NTSB determined.

Flying conditions Friday night in the Staples area were not good, Tebben said, with clouds and rain. The region to the north includes large, trackless areas with few cities among state forests, swamps, lakes and brushy, hilly geography where few lights would show at night, Tebben said.

The search Tuesday included nine counties: Polk, Marshall, Pennington, Mahnomen, Becker, Red Lake, Todd, Hubbard and Wadena, Pabon said.

While the size and nature of the search area is daunting, it also keeps hope alive that Lindberg will be found, waiting for help, Pabon said.

He had about 80 CAP volunteers working Tuesday, including airplanes from the South Dakota and North Dakota CAP affiliates, and he expects a similar effort today, Pabon said.

Lindberg's family and friends gathered in Brainerd are briefed regularly on the search's progress, Pabon said. "They have asked not to talk to the media," he said.

An auxiliary of the Air Force, the nonprofit CAP is a cadre of trained volunteers who not only are the nation's main search and rescue organization, but contribute to national disasters, such as the Red River Valley floods.

Reach Lee at (701) 780-1237; (800) 477-6572, ext. 237; or send e-mail to slee@gfherald.com.

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