Todd and Wadena county residents are being asked to be on the lookout for signs of a missing Twin Cities plane.
Rescue crews from the Minnesota Wing of the Civil Air Patrol spent the weekend searching for a plane that took off from Lakeville at 5 p.m. Friday en route to Hallock but never made it to its destination.
Family members said Andrew Lindberg of Farmington was the only person on board. He planned to meet his father to go hunting. The last communication from him was at 6:32 p.m. Friday when he sent a text message saying he was near Staples. The Todd County Sheriff's Office reported that a GPS signal indicated that the plane was within a 25-mile radius of the Wadena County tower when the text message was sent.
The sheriff's office was contacted at 10:49 p.m. Friday from the Princeton Flight Service asking for their assistance in looking for the plane at local airports because it was overdue to Hallock in northwestern Minnesota.
The plane is described as a yellow and black PA-28 Piper Cherokee.
Lt. George Supan, public information officer with the Civil Air Patrol's Minnesota Wing, said Sunday night that the CAP got the word early Saturday morning and sent its first crew at 7:30 a.m. Saturday to search for the missing plane and pilot.
The Civil Air Patrol's rescue crews are based at the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport for the mission, Supan said. He said more than 110 people from throughout the state are participating in the search, including 12 aircraft that had been in the air throughout the weekend and eight ground teams, made up of four or more Civil Air Patrol volunteers on each team.
As of Sunday night the Civil Air Patrol had searched more than 2,000 square miles in an area northwest of Staples and would continue their search early Monday morning, Supan said.
Supan said the missing plane has an emergency transmitting signal that would have been activated in a crash if the plane went down, but it's also possible the plane didn't hit hard enough to activate the signal. So far no aircraft have detected that signal, he said.
"At this point we don't have a concrete lead," Supan said. "Hunters are out there, a lot of them, and no one has reported anything unusual."
Those with any information are asked to immediately contact their local sheriff's office. The Todd County Sheriff's Office has made the same request of its residents. The sheriff's office may be reached at (800) 794-5733.
Supan said pilots are being asked to steer clear of the path between St. Cloud to Fosston so that they don't encounter any of the Civil Air Patrol's aircraft as they conduct this search.
This story contains information provided by The Associated Press.
JODIE TWEED may be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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