“We don’t currently believe it crashed.”

PAHRUMP (KTNV) — Southern Nevada aviation expert calls for escalation of ongoing situation find a driver who disappeared after taking off from Las Vegas North Airport last week.

In an interview with Channel 13 on Friday, Jonathan Wallentine – who owns and operates Valley View Airport in Pahrump – said he believes the investigation needs to be expanded.

The pilot, Michael Martin, 65, disappeared on January 2. Martin’s family said he disappeared during a routine flight aboard his plane, a Piper Cherokee Six PA-32-300.

Her the family also told Channel 13 Martin is an experienced driver – something Wallentine echoed during our conversations with him on Friday.

“Based on his track record, he’s a good driver. He’s a very good driver,” Wallentine said. “You can tell from his flight history…”

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Las Vegas family on pilot missing during flight: ‘It’s a big mystery’

When Wallentine learned that Martin was missing, he began going through the pilot’s flight records for more information.

Martin, an engineer who works in Las Vegas, often took a short flight during his lunch break to clear his head, his family said. But this time he never came back.

According to Martin’s family, his normal lunchtime flight consisted of a simple loop around Mt. Charleston. But data shows his plane’s transponder stopped transmitting at 10,000 feet near Jefferson Peak, just north of Tonopah.

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Wallentine says the details of this case so far just don’t add up.

“There are several different scenarios,” Wallentine said. “The first was: he’s frustrated, he’s going off the grid.”

Martin’s family disputes this possibility, pointing out that Martin didn’t take any extra money with him, his credit cards weren’t swiped anywhere and he didn’t even take his contact lenses.

Another possibility — that Martin’s plane crashed — is also unlikely, Wallentine said.

“If the ELT – which is the emergency transponder – had exploded, it would have been detected, in my professional opinion,” Wallentine said. “So I don’t think the plane crashed.”

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Wallentine says he even sent one of his pilots looking for any sign of Martin’s plane – and found nothing. That’s not to say Martin couldn’t have landed at a private airport — or even somewhere in the Nevada wilderness, he said.

The bizarre circumstances of Martin’s disappearance should be taken more seriously, Wallentine says.

“I mean, it’s the 10th (January). He left on the 2nd. That’s a long time,” he said.

“Because it went on for so long and the Civil Air Patrol and people were looking for the accident, well, there’s no indication of an accident,” Wallentine added.

Martin was last seen wearing khakis, a blue button-down shirt and a black fleece vest. His family tells us he wore his hair in a ponytail.

Anyone with information on Martin’s whereabouts is asked to call the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department at 702-828-3111.