Search on for missing New Mexico plane with two on board

By Joseph Kolb ALBUQUERQUE N.M. (Reuters) - Officials searched by ground and air in New Mexico on Tuesday for a single-engine plane with two passengers that went missing after taking off from a small airstrip west of Albuquerque on Friday, authorities said. Howard Guthrie, 55, and Melissa Watson, 42, were on board the Mooney M20 aircraft that left Moriarty en route for Pagosa Springs in Colorado for a weekend break, authorities said. "The airplane was unable to land in Pagosa Springs due to inclement weather and told to turn around," said a New Mexico State Police spokesman, Lieutenant Emmanuel Gutierrez. He said the Albuquerque Police Department requested their help on Monday after friends reported the couple missing. Matt Aleksa of the National Weather Service's office in Grand Junction, Colorado, said a storm front was passing through the mostly mountainous area around Pagosa Springs on Friday, preceded by light to moderate snowfall. Friends told local media they became worried after not hearing from the couple over the weekend, and that they called police after Watson failed to show up for work as a teacher at an elementary school, and then also failed to pick up her own child from school. "She is a very responsible mother and very responsible teacher and this is just really uncharacteristic of her, so we're very concerned," one friend, Matthew Pena, told KRQE News. In addition to state police air and ground units, Gutierrez said the Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, and federal agencies including the Air Force Rescue Coordinating Center are taking part in the search. (Reporting by Joseph Kolb; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Sandra Maler)