Operations were temporarily halted at a busy North Carolina airport Sunday night after it lost radar contact with an approaching small plane, launching a search around a densely forested state park nearby. A statement posted on the Raleigh-Durham International Airport website said air traffic controllers notified the airport that a small aircraft was lost on radar about 7:25 p.m. as it approached the airport. The statement added that airport firefighting units were immediately dispatched to the vicinity of William B. Umstead State Park, not far from the airport. Air operations were halted for about 20 minutes as rescue units rushed to the area, airport spokeswoman Crystal Feldman said. The president and CEO of the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority, Michael Landguth, echoed Feldman, describing the state park as having "few roads and little to no light."

Source: ABC News October 21, 2019 07:41 UTC