SUMTER, SC -- Shaw Air Force Base officials say the search for a missing pilot is still being treated as a rescue mission.

At a Friday afternoon news conference Shaw Air Force Base Wing Commander Col. Joseph T. Guastella, Jr. said all flight operations have been halted at the base.

Along the South Carolina Coast, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force and other agencies are using boats and planes to search for Capt. Nicholas Giglio of Shaw Air Force Base.  Search crews have spotted debris and an oil slick in the Atlantic Ocean.  The search has been expanded for the pilot, who has been missing since the planes collided during training exercises about 40 miles off Folly Beach.  The other pilot, Captain Lee Bryant, landed safely at Charleston Air Force Base. 

It has not been determined if weather was a factor in the accident.

Senior Master Sergeant Brad Fallon says the accident happened around 8:30 Thursday night over the Atlantic Ocean near Folly Beach.  Capt. Michael McAllister of the Coast Guard in Charleston said Friday that the search area is now about 1,300 square miles. 

McAllister said Giglio and his ejection seat would have had beacons, but no signal has been picked up.

This is the first crash at Shaw Air Force Base since April 5, 2006.  On that day, an F-16 went down around 5:40 PM about 30 miles off the South Carolina coast between Myrtle Beach and Charleston.  It took place during a training exercise over a section of the ocean where miltary jets are permitted to fly at supersonic speeds.  A Coast Guard team was able to find the missing pilot.

WACH FOX News will continue to follow this story.  Make sure to tune in tonight at 7:00 PM for an early edition of the WACH FOX Report and after the ALCS baseball game for WACH FOX News at Ten.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)