MINNESOTA -- Search crews continued to follow leads, develop new ones and scour the forests of the North Shore by air in the search for a Lakeville pilot and plane that went missing June 8. Lt. Col. Paul Hertel of the Civil Air Patrol said about 70 personnel from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois – in 11 aircraft and four ground teams – worked on the search for Michael Arthur Bratlie, 67, of Lakeville and his Piper PA-31 Navajo. The search has been focused on the Silver Bay area, where radar contact last placed the plane. Hertel said CAP personnel continued the search Sunday, with the effort including the use of an ARCHER aircraft from Minneapolis that has advanced hyperspectral imaging capability. That means it can look for objects of a specific color – such as Bratlie’s white plane – and also identify colors that don’t fit with the normal background of an area, such as the green of a forest.
