Missing Pennsylvania school bus found; children safe

Associated Press Writer

LANDOVER HILLS, Md. (AP) -- A school bus with 11 children aboard disappeared in eastern Pennsylvania on Thursday morning and was found hours later in Maryland, its occupants unhurt, authorities said.

The bus had picked up the students, ages 6 through 16, at Oley Valley High School in Oley, Pa., between 7:30 and 7:45 a.m. for the six-mile trip to the Berks Christian School in Birdsboro. It was found more than six hours later, parked outside of a Family Dollar store in Landover Hills, outside Washington, D.C., 115 miles away.

Some of the students dressed in school uniforms -- red burgundy tops and tan pants or skirts -- were taken into the store while others waited on the bus, where one waved an American flag out a window.

The disappearance had sparked a massive hunt for the bus, including a search by helicopter. Conditions in the area were rainy and foggy.

"The bus has been found. All the children are OK," Oley Township Police Chief George Endy said.

The man driving the bus when it was found had a shotgun, Pennsylvania state police trooper Raymond Albert said.

"He must have pulled over, maybe to get something to eat and the children were waving out the window," Albert said. "An off-duty police officer suspected something was wrong and took him into custody. And he (the driver) had a shotgun in his possession."

It wasn't immediately clear if the bus' original driver Thursday morning, identified as Otto Nuss, was the man driving when the bus was found. Nuss, of Boyertown, who is in his early 60s, has worked for the company that operates the bus since September, Albert said.

Parents, accompanied by ministers and counselors, were heading to Maryland to pick up the children, police said.

Earlier, distraught parents arrived at the Oley Township Municipal Building, the command center for the search. Police had been unable to reach Nuss on his two-way radio.

The 48-passenger bus has "Oley Valley Schools" written on both sides, police said. The district, which is responsible for transporting private school children, contracts with the private bus company, Quigley Bus Service.

Frank Love, a teacher at Berks Christian School, said the school has about 200 students from kindergarten through 12th grade. State police said they confirmed that at least 11 students, in first through ninth grades, were aboard.

Oley is in central Berks County, about 45 miles northwest of Philadelphia.