Authorities working to access site where missing pilot’s plane found

Officials said they were “working diligently” to access the remote location where a missing pilot’s plane was found over the weekend, but would not be able to reach it Monday.

Michael Martin, 65, took off from North Las Vegas Airport the morning of Jan. 2 and disappeared. His family reported him missing on Jan. 5.

His plane was found Saturday near Mount Jefferson in Nye County and Sheriff Joe McGill said it would be weeks before it would be possible to recover a body. The Metropolitan Police Department helicopter they need to use is undergoing maintenance and so is a Washoe County helicopter, he said.

Officials also asked federal agencies — the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board — for helicopters, but the agencies said they couldn’t provide them, according to McGill.

“We’ve exhausted all possibilities of how we’re going to get to the site,” he said.

Nye County Director of Emergency Management Scott Lewis said it is not clear if Martin’s body is in the plane, but the aircraft “looks like it sustained significant impact damage.”

McGill said that while it has not been possible to see what’s inside the plane, he believes Martin’s body is in it.

There was too much wind to access the location of the plane Monday, according to Lewis.

“It has to be absolutely safe for the people we’re putting into that area,” he said.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Kristen Alsop said the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. NTSB will be in charge of the investigation, according to Alsop.

In a post on the social media site X that did not name Martin, NTSB said it was investigating the Jan. 2 crash of a Piper PA-32-300 near Round Mountain, an unincorporated community in Nye County about 8 miles southwest of Mount Jefferson.

Martin’s family has said his plane was a Piper from the 1960s.

“The preliminary information we have is the plane impacted remote mountainous terrain under unknown circumstances,” NTSB said in a statement.

According to the agency, investigators will examine records including flight tracking data, air traffic control communications and weather conditions, then issue a preliminary report within 30 days.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.