A four-day hike into the Olympic wilderness to search for a missing fighter jet that crashed nearly 54 years ago ended with disappointment.

Last summer, Tomasz Biernacki's search party hiked about 20 miles into the Olympics near Mount Lawson to search for the wreckage of an F-102 Delta Dagger.

On Nov. 10, 1962, Capt. Robert Lucas took off from Everett's Paine Field with two other fighter jets. They were flying a routine intercept training mission when Lucas' plane crashed at what's believed to have been somewhere between Lake Cushman and Lake Quinault.

"It was disappointing," Biernacki said about not spotting the missing crashed plane. "It's heartbreaking."

Cy Laramie, who grew up in Hoodsport, joined Biernacki's search party because he remembered the crash and wanted to help.

"I was nine years old," Laramie said, reflecting on the day of the crash. "There were all kinds of rumors floating around."

The exact site of where Lucas' jet crashed was never determined, which hurt the extensive Air Force search effort (including 50 search planes) following the crash. Lucas is believed to have ejected from his plane before it crashed. After researching old newspaper reports about the incident, Biernacki and his group narrowed down a possible crash site to a 45,000-acre area near Mount Lawson.

Following that conjecture, they did an extensive search of the area through Google Earth satellites. They spotted what appeared to be a crashed F-102 not far from the peak of Mount Lawson. After a challenging hike, they stood on the exact spot they saw on Google Earth, but didn't find the crashed plane or anything that they saw on the satellite images.

They figured what they had thought was Lucas' crashed jet on Google Earth could have been a couple of fallen trees that were bleached and barkless.

"We found the exact spot, but didn't find the aircraft," Biernacki said.

Biernacki's search began with hope and ended with disappointment, but he said he's not finished. He's not giving up yet.

"No man left behind burns inside me," he said, stating the old military slogan about helping a fallen comrade. "I'll continue to search."

Biernacki is an avid outdoorsman and posts his adventure documentaries on his website on Facebook at myolympics.com. He has posted his recent search into the Olympics on YouTube at https://youtube/LabklkdfEWM.

"Hopefully this will bring more attention to this," he said.

There are technologies Biernacki said could help in their search, but "most of them are too expensive."

He's hoping a major sponsor can join in the search and help finance it. He's also hoping to hear from some hunters who were out in the woods on the day of the crash and heard or saw Lucas' jet crash.

"Right now, we're looking for people who were out there on that day," Biernacki said. "Noises. Explosions. Rumors. Anything that could help us put together a new lead."

Biernacki asks that anyone with information or who wants to help to contact him on his Facebook page.