Weather hampers jets search

Contact with the two F15s was lost on Monday

The search for two United States fighter pilots who went missing over the Scottish Highlands has resumed.

Their two Suffolk-based US Air Force F15 fighter bombers are believed to have crashed in the Cairngorm mountains after touching in mid-air during a routine training flight.

A search involving Nimrod aircraft, helicopters, and up to 250 RAF, police and civilian personnel was suspended on Monday night as weather conditions in the mountains deteriorated.

RAF spokesman Michael Mulford told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland that bad weather was hampering the search.

Weather wise it is distinctly difficult for helicopters up there and also very difficult in the higher reaches

RAF spokesman Michael Mulford

Mr Mulford said there had been no sighting of any wreckage, smoke or fire in the area between Ben Macdui and the Cairngorm Plateau - an area of over 200 square miles.

"During the night we were looking at reconnaissance images obtained by a Tornado which flew over the area last night," he said.

He said two American helicopters and the Braemar mountain rescue team had combed the area without any success.

"Weather wise it is distinctly difficult for helicopters up there and also very difficult in the higher reaches."

Mr Mulford said the jets' original flight path and eye witness accounts would form the basis of the search.

The planes, which set off from the US Air Force base at Lakenheath in England, were on a low flying training exercise when contact was lost.

Officially the aircraft were reported as "overdue" but with just three hours' worth of fuel on board, the outlook for the two crew looked increasingly bleak.

Weather conditions in the area were poor, with bad visibility, a covering of snow, and frequent blizzards.

Communications search

Mr Mulford said the F15s left Lakenheath, Suffolk, at about 1230BST for a three-hour sortie in the Scottish Highlands.

They made a routine air traffic transmission between RAF Leuchars and RAF Lossiemouth at 1315BST.

Mr Mulford said: "It is something of a mystery. The planes are well equipped safety-wise with low level ejector seats, safety beacons and beacons for the crew themselves.

Rescue aircraft face difficult conditions

"This will only be answered if and when we find these aircraft and these aircrew."

There has been one report of an explosion being heard in the Glen More Lodge area.

"It coincides exactly with the planes going missing from radar screens," said Mr Mulford.

"It was made after the planes disappeared, but not long after - maybe it took the caller that long to get down the mountain and get to the phone."

Eyewitness Fred Lawson, who was in the area with his wife, said: "We were driving along the Linn of Dee towards Braemar and this jet came straight at us.

"I said to my wife Susan, 'this is extraordinary, it looks totally out of control', whereupon it veered way up into the sky, turned left, and went north towards Ben Macdui into a heavy snow storm.

"A second one came following it looking as if it was under control and I just said 'that's amazing'."

Mr Lawson said the planes were flying "extremely low", at a height of about 200m.

US President George W Bush held a moment of silence for the missing pilots and two US airmen killed in Germany when their twin-engine propeller aircraft crashed in a forest on Tuesday.

"I do want you all to join me in a moment of silent prayer for the two soldiers, men who wore a uniform of America, who lost their lives in Germany today, and two of our pilots who are missing over Great Britain," Mr Bush asked a crowd during a tour of Montana.

"God bless them, God bless their families, God bless America."