The US Navy has been searching for a T-39 Sabreliner that left Chattanooga, Tenn., at 11 a.m. on Jan. 10 on a training flight, since it failed to show at NAS Pennsacola, Fla., at 3 p.m., as scheduled. The last contact with the aircraft came just 20 minutes after takeoff. On board were a Navy instructor, a Navy student, an Air Force student, and a civilian contract pilot. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Civil Air Patrol had to halt search efforts Wednesday morning because of bad weather. CAP has five aircraft from its unit at Rome, Ga., ready to pick up the search.
A legislative standoff has led to a lapse in a $4.26 billion small business innovation contracting program widely used by the Air Force and could spell the end of it entirely, industry sources warned Air & Space Forces Magazine.
