"Cecil Chapman" wrote in message
. net...
Shoki, one of the three that were killed was one of my fellow CFI's at my
FBO. While I only knew him in the day-to-day operations at our FBO, he
was always one of the warmest and friendliest person you could hope to
meet. The day he and his students died in that incredulously tragic crash
I found myself trying to reconcile that I had just seen him earlier that
day, walking by my desk in the CFI office area, smiling and waving as he
always would as he went off to his flight instruction duties.

The day after the accident all the CFI's met at the FBO, although none of
us had any desire to fly; both out of respect for our fallen friend and
because we were distracted by the loss of three of our own and were just
not fit to fly.

We hung around at the FBO for many hours (after an early morning meeting
where the announcement was shared - we were told to feel free to
decline/cancel any flights and to respect the wishes of any of our
students that were not up to flying that day). The thoughts we shared
went back and forth between the ones lost and the 'what could have gone
wrong' discussions.

The site of the accident was around the practice area that most of us
visit regularly with our students. The uncanny 'accuracy' (for lack of a
better word) that the plane went down into the sewage pond was
dumbfounding. Of course, the cruel irony of meeting one's end in a raw
sewage pond made the tragedy seem all the more poignant. They had to use
a high pressure hose with heavily chlorinated water to wash of the
aircraft wreckage and the bodies before copter lifting the wreckage (along
with the bodies - secured in by tarps and ropes) out of the emptied sewage
pond and then set down on a clear area nearby.

The wreckage was taken to Sacramento for study and the bodies were take to
the coroner.

One of our CFI's had been flying by the area and saw an aircraft spinning
in, but she had said that she was so high and the plane so low, that it
looked almost like a model radio airplane. It was after she landed that
she realized what she had just witnessed. Shoki had been one of her very
close friends at the flight school.

I didn't know the students very well, although I obviously knew them by
sight, in the day-to-day operations of the FBO.

I had been told years ago that if you fly long enough you will eventually
know someone who dies. Although another nearby business lost their owner
in a plane accident, this is the first time that this kind of tragedy has
struck in the 'home nest', as it were.

I took one of my students up for a flight yesterday and although the mood
to the aircraft was a somber one, talking about the loss - once we were in
the air, we both did what we had to do and focused our minds on the task.

There had been so many posts on this thread (which I wouldn't have noticed
until a friend mentioned the thread on this newsgroup; usually I'm just on
RAS), I just felt it important to put a human side, personal account of
the loss my flight school has gone through. There are three burning
candles with offerings of flowers on our front desk, commemorating the
loss.

This was a profound loss that will be felt for some time.


--
--
=-----
Good Flights!

Cecil E. Chapman
CFI-A, CP-ASEL-IA

Check out my personal flying adventures from my first flight to the
checkride AND the continuing adventures beyond!
Complete with pictures and text at: www.bayareapilot.com

"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

"We who fly, do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with
this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
- Cecil Day Lewis -

Thanks, we had been wondering about you. Fate is the hunter, sometimes
it strikes VERY close to home. Hang in there.

Al G