Hobby pilot Richard Martin missing after takeoff in Michigan

An octogenarian hobby pilot has vanished after taking off from a Michigan airport Sunday morning in his home-built plane, police said.

Richard Martin, 82, was last spotted as he ascended into the sky from Dowagiac Municipal Airport around 11 a.m. as part of a Sunday ritual following a breakfast at a local eatery, WWMT reported. When he didn’t land hours later, the pilot was reported missing.

“It was a routine flight for him, just for the fun, typically his flights last for an hour or so on average, he stays within the area,” Oscar Azevedo, Dowagiac Municipal Airport Manager, told the station.

 “It’s something he does frequently when the weather is good.”

He jetted off in a Sonex Plane, an experimental aircraft he put together in 2005, WWMT reported.

Azevedo said typically as Martin flies, his wife sits in a lawn chair soaking up the sun.

“The time frame was entirely too long that it took him to come back this time,” the concerned airport manager said.

Authorities are now searching for Martin in a county north of Dowagiac, cops said.

Dowagiac Deputy Police Chief Kevin Roman told WVPE Martin typically doesn’t file a flight plan and didn’t Sunday.

“We’ve had some tips that came in that mentioned a low-flying plane, or a plane that’s flying erratically,” Roman said, according to the radio station. 

“But nothing of the sort of, ‘I saw the plane physically crash.’ We’ve heard nothing of that sort of nature.”