The Air Force has concluded a pilot deliberately flew his bomb-laden warplane into a snowy peak in Colorado's Rocky Mountains six months ago to commit suicide, a Defense Department official said yesterday.

Capt. Craig Button, 32, and his A-10 Thunderbolt II disappeared during a routine training mission April 2 when the aircraft veered off course after takeoff from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. A three-week search, hampered by weather and forbidding terrain, eventually turned up wreckage on Gold Dust Peak near Vail.

The official said an Air Force report on the incident to be released next week concludes Button "apparently committed suicide but did not make the decision until after he was airborne."