Navy plane missing in north Georgia

Volunteers unsuccessfully searched remote areas of Murray County in northwest Georgia Wednesday for a Navy training jet carrying four aviators that went missing on Tuesday on a flight from Tennessee to Florida.

Ground crews were joined Wednesday by a Georgia State Patrol helicopter and four airplanes flown by volunteer pilots of the Civil Air Patrol, said Paige Joyner, spokeswoman for the Georgia Wing of the Civil Air Patrol.

The plane, a T-39 Sabreliner, is "similar to a Lear Jet," Joyner said.

The jet took off from the Chattanooga, Tenn., airport at 11 a.m. Tuesday on a navigation training mission, and last radio contact came at 11:20 a.m., said Lt. j.g. Sean Robertson, a public affairs officer for the Navy's South region. The plane was scheduled to arrive at the Pensacola Naval Air Station at 3 p.m.

Robertson said a Navy instructor, a Navy student, an Air Force student and a civilian contract pilot were on board.

Navy officials declined to disclose the aircraft's route, whether it carried distress or locator beacons and where authorities were searching.

Murray County Sheriff Howard Ensley said the plane disappeared from radar in the Carters Lake area of Murray and Gilmer counties south of Chatsworth.

Ensley said his county's rescue squad spent Tuesday night and today "checking in areas where someone may have heard a noise or something.

"We had some callers to the 911 center that said they heard a loud noise, but nothing has been substantiated," he said.

About 10-20 volunteer rescue squad members continued the search Wednesday night, Ensley said.

Inclement weather grounded Civil Air Patrol flights out of Rome Wednesday morning, but Joyner said conditions improved around noon, and at 1 p.m., three search planes were in the air, with two others preparing to depart the Rome airport.

Joyner said the Navy's normal training routes "cross the northwest quadrant of Georgia."