List of searchers grows for missing Las Vegas pilot

Thursday, March 11, 1999 | 11:11 a.m.

The Coast Guard and an Air Force search and rescue unit were to join in the search for a missing Nevada pilot in Mexico this morning.

Gus Sabo, 51, manager of the North Las Vegas Airport, disappeared somewhere along the Baja California peninsula Sunday after his private plane encountered bad weather on a return trip to Southern Nevada.

Sabo, flying a home-built craft called a Long-EZ, had spent several days at Loreto, Mexico, joining a group of other Long-EZ owners at a social gathering.

Officials say Sabo was about 150 miles south of San Felipe when he ran into icy weather conditions.

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., was instrumental in gaining the support of the Mexican government to allow U.S. military personnel into its airspace to look for the missing pilot.

Jean Neal, Bryan's chief of staff, said the Coast Guard was to have a C-130, equipped with sophisticated search equipment, flying into Mexico by 7 this morning.

"It's their best search aircraft and team," Neal said.

The Air Force's Search and Rescue unit is helping coordinate the search, she said.

The list of pilots from the Las Vegas area volunteering to help in the search continues to grow, Debbie Millett, Clark County Department of Aviation spokeswoman, said.

"Two more search planes left North Las Vegas today, a group flew down yesterday and one more is to leave later today," Millett said this morning.

Also involved in the search are the Civil Air Patrol and the San Diego sheriff's office's search and rescue unit.

Las Vegas physician Dr. Mark Kraft, a close friend of Sabo and owner of a Long-EZ, described the experimental plane flown by Sabo as one of the safest in the air.

"The aircraft has demonstrated a strong safety record for survivability," Kraft said.

The Long-EZ is made of material similar to fiberglass, which Kraft described as "space age material."

"Structurally, they are stronger than metal craft," he said.