BY LARRY P. VELLEQUETTE(BLADE map by Deryl Dunn; Source: Michigan Civil Patrol)
A year ago tomorrow, Jim Hysong climbed into a rented airplane for a flight to Jackson, Mich. He was going to take a test to become a flight instructor.
An accomplished pilot, the 20-year-old Sylvania Township man took off from Toledo Suburban Airport in the 1974 Piper Cherokee Arrow about 10:15 that chilly Monday morning.
It should have been a routine 20-minute flight, but the flight was anything but routine.
Mr. Hysong never arrived in Jackson, or anywhere else as far as authorities can determine.
His disappearance has left a thorn in the sides of family, friends, and investigators who wonder: What happened to Jim Hysong?
"We searched for six weeks," said Lt. Col. Leslie Stephens, director of emergency services for the Michigan Wing of the Civil Air Patrol.
"We followed a lot of leads and nothing really ever came up," Colonel Stephens said.
Mr. Hysong was passionate about flying. He had attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., for a year in hopes of getting into its flight school, but didn't make the requirements.
Still, he had gained extensive flying experience in Florida, and had begun flying from Toledo Suburban in January, 1993.
Mr. Hysong never filed a flight plan for his 55-mile flight to Jackson last March 15, but a plane -- believed to be the one flown by Mr. Hysong -- was tracked on radar flying from the Whiteford Township, Michigan, airstrip about the time Mr. Hysong took off.
The plane, however, didn't fly anywhere near Jackson. Instead, it flew north, near Lansing, and then almost due west over Grand Rapids, Mich., and beyond before vanishing from radar screens over Lake Michigan at 11:38 that morning.
In its investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board could find no evidence of a crash site or reason for a crash, but issued a preliminary ruling that the airplane was missing and its pilot, Mr. Hysong, was presumed dead.
But the official explanation was never enough for Mr. Hysong's family or the investigators who worked on the case.
"We continue to search for an answer for Jim's disappearance," said his father, James Hysong, Sr. "We spent a large part of the last year doing just that -- searching. We'll never stop following up on ideas until we do get an answer, but to date, we have no more answers than we did a year ago at this time."
The disappearance of Mr. Hysong has bothered Colonel Stephens. There were problems with the search, he explained -- a loss of valuable time that he feels may have made the difference in solving the mystery.
The Civil Air Patrol began searching for Mr. Hysong's aircraft a few hours after it failed to show up in Jackson. Initially, ground and air units searched only in Lenawee and Jackson counties, along what they believed was Mr. Hysong's flight path.
But it wasn't until three days later that the patrol received a final report from Midwest radar centers that showed the plane may have gone as far west as Lake Michigan.
That meant that if Mr. Hysong did go down in Lake Michigan as the NTSB believes, it was nearly four days before the coast guard began searching for evidence of the crash. That's enough time for parts of the plane to sink or an oil slick to dissipate.
That, of course, is if the plane that was picked up on radar was indeed flown by Mr. Hysong.
"We have to be pretty precise on the time the aircraft departed, then the [radar] centers go back and research the tapes from that time," Mr. Stephens said. "Normally, my experience with that is it's about 80 per cent of the time that they've got everything right."
The other 20 per cent is what gives Colonel Stephens his margin of doubt, and a reason to continue to search.
"I'm not 100 per cent sure that that was our aircraft. There is a possibility it could have gone down somewhere else, like in one of the many lakes in the area, and we couldn't have found it," he said.
Monroe County sheriff's Detective Al Snow has been trying to find the missing airplane since Mr. Hysong was reported missing. His investigation also is no closer to being closed today than it was a year ago.
"I have ideas and I have my theories about what happened," Detective Snow said. "All I can tell you is that he and the plane are still out. To be honest, I don't know where the plane is."
Detective Snow has refused to believe Mr. Hysong and the missing plane went into Lake Michigan last March.
"I'd like to find this guy. I've been operating under the assumption that the plane is still out and that he is still alive," Detective Snow said. "I wouldn't think that plane could disappear off the face. of the earth."
Aircraft flying along that area in southern Michigan can fly below radar cover, which usually begins about 2,100 feet, Colonel Stephens said. It is possible Mr. Hysong's, plane could have descended under that radar and flew away without being picked up again.
"The only way he'll never turn up is if he's out in the lake. A small aircraft like that could be torn up pretty quick in the lake," the colonel said.
Like everyone else involved in the disappearance of Mr. Hysong, Thomas Trumbull, owner of the airplane, has been baffled.
"It's been on my mind since he disappeared," said Mr. Trumbull, owner of Toledo Suburban Aviation. "Everybody's so darn clean; there's no trace of anything. The plane absolutely disappeared."
Since last March, Mr. Trumbull said he has spoken to Mr. Hysong's family several times. He also has purchased another Piper Cherokee Arrow with an insurance settlement.
But the disappearance still eats at him.
"Our thoughts have been with the family throughout this," Mr. Trumbull said. "It's got to be difficult to go through a year without a word of anything."
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