Craig D . Button Craig David Button ( November 24 , 1964 - April 2 , 1997 ) was a United States Air Force pilot who died when he crashed an A - 10 Thunderbolt II aircraft under mysterious circumstances on April 2 , 1997 . During the incident , Captain Button inexplicably flew hundreds of miles off - course without radio contact , appeared to maneuver purposefully and did not attempt to eject before the crash . His death is regarded as a suicide because no other hypothesis explains the events . His aircraft carried live bombs which were never recovered . It took three weeks to find the crash site . During that time , there was widespread public speculation about Captain Button ' s intentions and whereabouts . Family . Craig Button ' s father , Richard Button , was a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel . His mother , Joan Button , was a devoted Jehovah ' s Witness . According to a letter written by Craig , she raised him " to think that joining the military is wrong . " She did not allow Craig to wear his college AFROTC uniform at home . Craig ' s half - sister , Susane Button , reported that his mother had wanted him to leave the military . Hurlburt Field at Eglin Air Force Base ( home of the Air Force Special Operations Command ) is named after Craig Button ' s uncle , Donald Wilson Hurlburt , who was a B - 17 pilot in World War II . Early life . Craig Button graduated from Long Island ' s Wantagh High School in Wantagh , New York . He began flying at age 17 and aspired to be a professional pilot . He was described as " polite " , " quiet " and a " perfectionist " who " rarely drank and never smoked . " One of his instructors remarked that his shoes were always shined . His next - door neighbor growing up reports that he was " a ridiculously hard worker . " Air Force career . Captain Button was commissioned through the Air Force ROTC program at New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury , New York , where he received a degree in aerospace engineering in 1990 . He spent four years at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas as a T - 37 first assignment instructor pilot ( FAIP ) before transferring to the A - 10 at Davis – Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona . He had been an Air Force pilot for five years before the crash . Events of April 2 , 1997 . Captain Button took off in his single - seat A - 10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft on a training mission with two other A - 10s from Davis - Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson , Arizona . His jet was armed with four Mk - 82 bombs , 60 magnesium flares , 120 metal chaff canisters and 575 rounds of 30 - millimeter ammunition . This training mission would have been the first time Captain Button dropped live ordnance . Near Gila Bend , Arizona , after being refueled in - flight , Captain Button unexpectedly broke formation . He flew in a northeasterly direction towards the Four Corners area of Colorado , New Mexico , Arizona and Utah . His jet was spotted numerous times by observers on the ground . One observer , an off - duty pilot , said the jet appeared to maneuver around bad weather . This observation suggested to the Air Force that the aircraft was being flown manually and purposefully . The flight was tracked by radar in Phoenix , Albuquerque and Denver . But because Captain Button ' s transponder was turned off , the aircraft was only tracked , not identified . It was only after analyzing radar data later that investigators were able to track Button ' s flight . The jet zig - zagged near the end of its flight . It was last spotted in the air about west of Denver . The jet impacted terrain about SW of Vail , Colorado , on Gold Dust Peak ( ) in a remote part of Eagle County . The Air Force concluded the jet probably had two to five minutes of fuel remaining when it crashed . The impact occurred at about of elevation , just below the summit . The debris field was over a quarter - mile - square area ( 0 . 64 km ) . Pieces of the canopy and cockpit went over a ridge . Search and recovery . The search for the crash site was conducted by the US Air Force , Colorado Air National Guard and the Civil Air Patrol . A U - 2 reconnaissance plane from Beale Air Force Base in California overflew the area and identified five possible sites . Twenty days after Button ' s aircraft disappeared , an Air Force MH - 53 helicopter spotted metal fragments in the snow on Gold Dust Peak . Steep terrain , bad weather , high winds , deep snow , rock slides and avalanches hampered access to the site . Rodents were even found to be chewing through the ropes of recovery personnel . It was several more days before the wreckage was confirmed to be Captain Button ' s missing A - 10 . It took another four months to recover the human remains . Status of the Mk - 82 bombs . The four 500 - pound Mk - 82 bombs have not been found despite an exhaustive search involving metal detectors and ground - penetrating radar . The bombs were designed to survive a crash and the Air Force expected to find them at the site . Furthermore , the aircraft ' s bomb racks were recovered in the wreckage , and they indicated that the bombs had not been released . Yet , more than four dozen witnesses reported hearing loud explosions in Northern Arizona and also near Telluride and Aspen in Colorado . However , no evidence was found to support the idea that Button released the weapons where the explosions were heard . The Mk - 82 bombs can throw fragments more than a mile ( 1 . 6 km ) , and the crash site was less than 4000 feet ( 1 . 2 km ) from a deep alpine lake .