(KTNV) — Days after the crashed plane of Las Vegas pilot Michael Martin was found, officials with the Nye County Sheriff's Office say it will likely be weeks before they can access the site.
Nye County personnel began the search for Martin, 65, on Jan. 5. On Jan. 16, sheriff's officials called off the search, writing that "hundreds of man-hours have been committed to locating the pilot and aircraft with no results."
Three days later, sheriff's officials announced Martin's plane had been found.
"Based on photos of the crashed plane, there would be no chance of survival," officials stated in a social media post on Tuesday morning.
A game warden discovered Martin's plane — a Piper Cherokee Six PA-32-300 — in a remote area near Mt. Jefferson, northeast of Tonopah, according to Nye County officials.
"As of today, we have exhausted all possibilities of reaching the crash site at this time to complete a recovery," they wrote. "We expect it to be several weeks until we will have access to the necessary resources to get into the very rugged area to confirm that Mr. Martin is in the plane."
Martin's family previously told Channel 13 he was last seen on Jan. 2. The flight tracking service Flight Aware shows he took off from the North Las Vegas airport at 10:51 a.m.
His family members say he often took a short flight on his lunch break from work. A local pilot who spoke to Channel 13 noted conditions on Jan. 2 were windy, and Martin may have experienced dangerous turbulence on his flight.
The day before the plane was found, Martin's familyput out a call for volunteers to join the search effort, writing that, "We are desperate to find him and bring him back home to us. He is a beloved husband, father, brother and friend, and we will not rest until he is found."
