HISTORY OF FLIGHT
On June 16, 1996, about 2215 hours Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 152, N6198P, collided with trees and mountainous terrain near Carmel, California. The aircraft was operated by Nice Air of San Jose, California, and rented by the pilot for a night tour of the San Francisco Bay area. Based on nearby weather station observations, instrument meteorological conditions prevailed at the accident site and no flight plan was filed for the operation. The aircraft was demolished in the tree and ground impact sequence. The certificated private pilot and his one passenger sustained fatal injuries. The flight originated from Reid-Hillview Airport, San Jose, California, on June 16th at 1949.
According to the operator, the pilot scheduled the aircraft from 1800 until midnight on the 16th and departed their ramp at 1949. Review of the Reid-Hillview ATCT records disclosed the aircraft was given a takeoff clearance at 1956. Bay TRACON radar and air-to-ground communications tapes disclosed the aircraft contacted the facility near the San Jose airport and requested a "Bay tour" (according to ATCT controllers, this is a recognized term which means the requester wishes to overfly the standard tourist sights, then down the Pacific coast to Half Moon Bay, then across the coastal mountains back to San Jose). The aircraft was given a discrete transponder code and the tour was authorized. The aircraft flew over Highway 101, over San Francisco airport, around Treasure Island, past the tourist sights along Fisherman's Wharf, and over the Golden Gate Bridge. Once past the bridge, the aircraft turned south along the peninsula's Pacific coast. When the aircraft was in the vicinity of Treasure Island, the pilot requested a descent to 1,300 feet to stay below the low coastal stratus.
About 8 miles north of Half Moon Bay, radar services were terminated by Bay TRACON due to limited radar coverage in the area. At the time radar services were terminated the pilot reported that he had the Half Moon Bay airport in sight. The last documented radar contact with the aircraft was over the Half Moon Bay airport at 2057; the mode C reported altitude at that time was 1,000 feet msl.
The aircraft did not return to San Jose and the operator reported the flight overdue and missing on June 18th. No Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) signals were detected by either aircraft or satellites. A search was initiated by the Civil Air Patrol and was suspended on June 28th without success. Additional searches were initiated on June 30 and extended until July 3, when all official search activities were suspended.
On July 18th the aircraft was found by hikers at the 1,750-foot level of the coastal mountains 15 miles south of Carmel in Palo Colorado Canyon. The accident site is 85 miles south of the Half Moon Bay airport, and 17 miles south of the Monterey airport. On-site examination disclosed that the aircraft collided with multiple large California Redwood trees. The recording flight hour meter on the aircraft disclosed it had flown a total of 2.5 hours since departure from San Jose.
PILOT INFORMATION
The pilot's flight logbook was recovered from the aircraft and examined. In addition, information was obtained from the FAA Airman and Medical Records centers in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The flight instructor who worked with the pilot for his private pilot certificate was also interviewed.
Review of the records and information disclosed that the pilot began flight training in Ohio on September 24, 1995, and continued until November. After moving to the San Francisco Bay area, the pilot resumed flight training in January 1996 at the aircraft operator's facility and continued until his private certificate was issued on April 2, 1996. At the time of the accident, the pilot had accrued a total time of 82 hours, of which 4 were at night. Detailed examination of the logbook entries disclosed that the accident flight was the third night flight for the pilot.
AIRCRAFT INFORMATION
Manufactured in March 1981, the airframe had accrued a total time in service of 4,408 hours. Review of the aircraft maintenance records disclosed that an annual inspection was completed June 14, 1996, 8 hours prior to the accident. No unresolved maintenance discrepancies were noted during the records review. The aircraft was equipped with the instruments and equipment specified by 14 CFR Part 91 for flight during night VFR and IFR conditions.
Fueling records at the Ried-Hillview airport disclosed that the aircraft was last fueled immediately prior to departure with the addition of 9.8 gallons of 100LL aviation fuel. According to the refueling technician, the addition of the fuel filled the aircraft tanks to capacity.
AIDS TO NAVIGATION
Review of FAA facility records disclosed that all ground based electronic aids to navigation within reception distance of a course line between Half Moon Bay and the accident site were operational during the time frame of the accident flight.
According to the facility managers at Bay TRACON and Oakland ARTCC, the floor of both facilities radar coverage south of Half Moon Bay is 2,000 feet msl.
METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION
Review of FAA and National Weather Service records disclosed no evidence that the pilot received a weather briefing on the day of the accident.
As noted in the HISTORY OF FLIGHT section of this narrative, during the flight the pilot advised Bay TRACON that he had to descend to 1,300 feet msl to stay below a coastal stratus layer. Review of weather observations from the stations of San Francisco and Monterey disclosed that ceilings were generally broken to overcast between 1,600 and 2,000 feet. Visibility ranged from 20 miles at San Francisco to 5 miles at Monterey. Upper air data from Oakland, California, disclosed that the top of the moisture layer was 2,600 feet.
A Safety Board computer program was utilized to determine the position of the sun and moon during the accident flight. Sunset occurred at 2031 for the latitude of the site. At 2215, both the sun and moon were below the western horizon at 18 and 14 degrees respectively.
WRECKAGE AND IMPACT
An on-site wreckage documentation was conducted on July 19, 1996.
The accident site is about 5 miles inland from the coast in Palo Colorado Canyon at an elevation of 1,750 feet msl. Part of the central California coastal mountain range, the canyon is heavily forested by stands of California Redwood trees, which reach heights in excess of 150 feet agl. Oriented on an average magnetic bearing of 100 degrees, the central axis of the canyon from the coast narrows as it rises from near sea level to elevations in excess of 4,000 feet msl. The area is sparsely populated with few ground reference lights at night. The immediate vicinity of the accident site consists of a hillside slope ranging from 30 to 45 degrees. A path of disturbed trees was noted on a magnetic bearing averaging 100 degrees over a distance of 175 feet, and culminated in the fuselage wreckage mass. The first disturbed tree was geometrically measured to be 150 feet tall, with a contact mark and wing skin noted about 25 feet from the top. The remaining sections of the right wing to include the cabin right door post were located at the base of the tree.
Another disturbed tree (also a large California redwood) was noted 150 feet along the wreckage bearing, with the contact marks observed to be about 50 feet lower than the disturbed area on the first tree. The left wing and the cabin spar carry-through member were found at the base of this tree. The instrument panel and cockpit contents were found distributed between the second tree and the fuselage wreckage mass 25 feet away.
TEST AND RESEARCH
Following on-site documentation, the wreckage was recovered to a salvage facility in Pleasant Grove, California, for detailed examination of the airframe and engine.
The digital aircraft communication and navigation radios were removed from the aircraft and taken to an avionics shop to determine the frequencies selected. In addition, the ELT was taken for functional tests. The radios were found selected to the following: Com 1= 120.1; Com 2 = 135.1; Nav 1 = 114.1; and Nav 2 = 117.3. The ELT battery was found to have 9.3 volts. The ELT power output and G-switch functions were determined to be normal.
The engine crankshaft rotated, with compression noted in all cylinders. Valve train and accessory gear continuity was established. Both magnetos were tested with their respective ignition lead harnesses and produced strong sparks in firing order with hand rotation. The engine was completely disassembled, with no discrepancies noted. A complete report of the examination is appended.
Complete control system continuity was established from the control surfaces to the cockpit controls within the airframe.
The cabin heat muff was intact, with no evidence of exhaust gas leakage.
The propeller displayed leading edge damage, cordwise striations and blade tip end twist deformation opposite the cambered side.
The airframe was schematically laid out for review of the damage patterns. From a mid door point, the forward portion of the fuselage was extensively fragmented. The firewall, with engine attached, was separated from the structure, as was the instrument panel. Both wings were separated from the cabin carry-through member. The left wing was intact in a spanwise direction, with the tip end crushed rearward on a 45-degree axis over the outboard 3 feet. Leading edge crush was observed on the inboard 6 feet of the left wing, with brown-greenish organic material transfer noted to the damaged areas. The right wing was extensively fragmented, with large 30-inch diameter semicircular indentations crushed rearward to the main spar area. Organic material transfer similar to the left wing was observed in the damaged areas of the right wing. The axis of all crush deformation on the wing leading edges was observed to be roughly perpendicular to the wing cord line.
All control surfaces and balance weights remained attached to their respective structures.
MEDICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL INFORMATION
According to the Monterey County Coroner, both occupants sustained fatal injuries in the accident. No suitable tissue or fluid specimens were available for toxicological tests.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The aircraft wreckage was released to a representative of the registered owner on August 19, 1996, at the conclusion of the airframe and engine examinations. When last seen, the wreckage was located the facilities of Plain Parts, Pleasant Grove, California.
Geoff Wyant, a very dear friend of the folks at Critical Mass, died in a plane crash on Sunday, June 16th. Geoff was on a visit to Northern California that week; he was on a private single-engine plane on a sightseeing trip with a childhood friend, James Pollock, when the plane crashed into a mountain, killing them both.
Geoff was not only very smart, he was also very sweet. To get a taste of what it was like to work with Geoff, you can take a look of what Bob Sproull had to say about Geoff.
As time allows, in Geoff's memory, I will update this page with information I gather about Geoff. If you happen to have known Geoff well and have something to say or know of a nice story about him, please let me know. so I can include it here for others to see.
The Wyant Educational Fund has been established in order to help support the education of Geoff's two young children, Rebecca who is eight and Gregory who is six. Contributions in the form of checks payable to:
The Wyant Educational FundUnless you ask otherwise, a copy of your check will be sent to the Wyants.
The Lowell Five Cents Savings Bank
23 Fletcher Street
Chelmsford, MA 01824
The Wyant FamilyIf you'd like to send an e-mail message just send it to farshad@cmass.com and Farshad will make sure the Wyants receive your message.
c/o Critical Mass, Inc.
1770 Massachusetts Ave. #262
Cambridge, MA 02140
I tried my best to be factual, though I've never flewn a plane, and I did receive a couple of nice messages clarifying some statements that I haven't had a chance of folding into my synopsis. Anyway, read at your own risk. If someone finds the final report from Air Traffic Safety database regarding the reason of crash, etc, that would be great...
29 July 1996 A memorial service for Geoff was held at 10:00 AM, Monday July 29 at the United Methodist Church in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
22 July 1996 The plane was found by a hiker on Friday. It had crashed into the top of a little mountain twenty miles south of Monterey, six miles from U.S. 1. This is an hour south from the the Half Moon Bay airport area, which is where the searchers had focused.
To get to where the plane crashed from Half Moon Bay, Carole Wyant tells me, it had to pass through Monterey airspace, for which it needed to radio for permission. Apparently it did so. It is not clear why this information did not become known, why the search combed an area further north.
The plane hit the mountain head-on and broke into several pieces. Geoff and Jim were killed instantly.
See the SJMN article below for more information.
I have collected various newspaper "clippings" below. Note that because of initial confusion, some of the articles contain wrong or misleading information. I will also include below what I think may have taken place from my perspective with some questions that are yet unanswered.
Geoff had a presentation in the west coast on Tuesday; he was in California for the weekend, I imagine, to save on airfare. The last I heard from him was 11.30am Sunday 16th PDT--Geoff and I kept in touch via e-mail almost everyday. He mentioned his plans, including presentation at Sun, his visit to DEC SRC, and even the fact that he may go see a movie later that afternoon, but did not say anything about the airplane ride. My take is that the ride was something that came out when he called his childhood friend Jim. Jim and Geoff had been together for a long time. Geoff thought very highly of Jim from what he had told me about him. Jim was away in Japan for many years, but for various reasons decided to come back to the US. He was planning to go back one more time to wrap up things right after Geoff's visit.
I don't believe Geoff had remembered that Jim was going back to Japan until he called Jim from his hotel room sometime on Sunday. (Perhaps the hotel has a log of telephone calls made and their time?) Evidently, Jim's phone number was left right next to the phone in the hotel room. So Geoff calls Jim to arrange for when to get together that week--as is customary for techies while on a business trip--and James convinced Geoff to go on the ride for the ol' times sake. (At least that's my impression; Geoff was pretty conservative regarding these sort of things; then again they were childhood friends, and it is a beautiful ride...)
I have not heard anything about what happened between noon-time and 8pm when they went out to the airport. I suspect Sun's entry logs include Geoff's time of departure from the labs. My last e-mails from him were from his workstation on the east coast, so I suspect he had remotely logged in, and I don't think Geoff had an access card. (Perhaps someone from Sun can correct me on this.)
That evening, Jim rented a two-seater, single-engine airplane from the Nice rental place in Reid-Hillview Airport, in the eastside of San Jose. The weather in San Jose was clear, so it was a nice time for a sightseeing flight. Jim has had 80 hours of flying lessons, so he couldn't have flied under IFR-- Instrument Flight Rule for more experienced pilots, so he was flying under VFR--Visual Flight Rule--which means that he did not have to file a flight plan. In most cases, when pilots are going for a sightseeing tour and plan to come back to the same airport, they do not file for a plan. This is one reason for the rescue plans not to start until Wednesday. If you file a flight plan, an automatic accident report is filed if you don't land within a threshold of time, and rescue starts automatically. In this case, no one was searching for the plane until someone noticed Geoff was missing, and there was a link established between Geoff and Jim. (I can see why people were confused.) The exact linkage is still unclear to me. Evidently someone tried to rent the same plane from the rental agency on Tuesday and that's when the owner reported the plane to be missing.
I also have not heard as to whether Geoff and Jim were seen together at the rental. I seem to recall someone saying that someone saw them together at a diner, but I can't say for sure if this is credible.
Anyway, they took off at about 8pm, and I suspect went up the coast to get a view of the bay. I bet it was a nice view. Though it sounds like they hit some fog at some point. As anyone from the bay area would remind you, the weather there consists of several micro-climates. It is quite usual for San Jose to have clear skies and it'd be cloudy in San Francisco. So, they started with clear skies and ended up in the fog. It is still not clear to me if they planned to land on Half Moon Bay Airport initially or did so as an effort to get out of the fog, or something else went wrong. What is clear is that they were in touch with FAA's flight control in Fremont (Oakland by another account) when James told flight control that he had visual contact with Half Moon Bay. One account says that he said he was planning to land; another says he didn't say so. (Which one is the right one?) At this point the flight control did not follow the aircraft on their radar. (One account says that they made a sharp right, taking them off the radar.) The last contact with the airplane was 4 miles NW of Half Moon Bay airport, approximately one mile out of the coast. We don't know what happened after that.
The rescue effort seems to have started on Wednesday, from the accounts I have heard. This would make sense since most of the coverage was from Thursday and Friday of last week. All of the people I have spoken have been quite nice and committed. From what I have heard, there has been at least 50 sorties by now, with more than 160 hours of coverage. Nevertheless, the weather conditions have been quite bad. Fog has been making the air search very difficult.
There hasn't been enough coverage on the media unfortunately since it is not a "hot" story, and not many leads have come in. I feel that people with uncertain leads don't come forward without having heard about some bad incident; humanbeings are optimists by nature. There was one lead of a ranger's wife in the watershed area near the airport who had heard a low-flying plane around the same time. There was a search team, and the rangers continue to search the watershed, but they have not found anything (yet.) The Cesna is a small plane, about the size of a VW Beetle. It could have easily gone down in between the 90-foot redwood trees, making it almost impossible to find in visual inspection, especially with fog. If they did hit the water, they also would be hard to find because the waters in the Half Moon Bay have many fast-moving formations, they could easily move the wreckage of a plane from under the water. Also, their airplane was the smallest possible plane you could have, so it would have not been very good in going against big winds which may have existed in the coastal area. There was a report about an oil slick and a sonar echo near the Half Moon Bay but it turned out that it was not the plane.
I heard from some people that the search was suspended for different reasons. Then I heard that the search was resumed perhaps due to pressure from the congressman from Ohio. I have heard differing stories about why these have happened. Nevertheless the search was restarted, and while it is going, I think it is best that it'd continue. If they stop the search, chances are nothing will be found until someone runs into it randomly--if they will--and that may just take too long for the families and friends of Geoff and Jim. This is precisely why I need your help in continuing the search.
San Jose Mercury-News
20 July 1996
By Daniel Vasquez, Mercury News Staff Writer
The bodies of novice pilot James B. Pollock of Fremont and his childhood pal Geoffrey Wyant were found late Thursday in the wreckage of a small plane near Big Sur, answering the final wish of a wife who had nearly lost hope of giving her husband a decent burial.
``If God decides to claim him, then I would accept the outcome,'' Carole Wyant wrote in a letter to the Mercury News after the June 16 disappearance of her husband and his friend. But she wanted to at least ``bury him with dignity.''
``I don't know why they had to take him away from me,'' she said Friday. ``I just couldn't live knowing he was out there alone. At least now I can bring him home.''
Hikers found the wreckage Thursday of the Cessna 152 piloted by Pollock, who had only about 100 flying hours, at Palo Colorado Canyon in Los Padres National Park. The debris, which was found six miles east of Highway 1, cut a 150-foot swath through the heavily wooded area.
Little is known of what happened to Pollock, 39, and Wyant, 40, of Chelmsford, Mass., except that the best friends shared a scenic night flight from San Jose to San Francisco to Half Moon Bay.
After Wyant's co-workers reported him missing, authorities spent the next 10 days searching a 2,500-square-mile area by air, land and sea.
A Monterey County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team located the badly decomposed bodies Thursday evening inside the severed cockpit, which was upside down, said authorities. The blue-and-white two-seat plane was in pieces, with its fuselage, engine and tail scattered in the canyon.
A coroner's official said the cause of death was ``multiple blunt force trauma.'' Though officials said there were no signs of explosion or burning, an official cause of the crash will not be determined for weeks.
Records show that Pollock and Wyant rented the plane from Nice Air and flew the small plane out of Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose at 6 p.m. June 16 and headed to the Golden Gate Bridge and other San Francisco sights before flying south to Half Moon Bay.
About three hours later, Pollock radioed San Francisco air officials and reported he was near the Half Moon Bay Airport. About 10 p.m. the plane was about 10 miles north of Half Moon Bay, the last time it was picked up by radar.
``We were surprised to find them where they ended up,'' said Lt. Col. Joe Bradley of the Civil Air Patrol. ``Given the pilot's experience, given that he had no known experience (in the area) and given the weather conditions, it doesn't make sense.
``They passed up a whole lot of airports to get there,'' he said.
The two had been chums since playing in the snow as children in Delaware, Ohio; attended the same grade school, high school and Ohio State University. They were eventually parted by jobs, continents and marriage but stayed in touch. Along with childhood memories, the two also shared an enthusiasm for high-tech gadgets, computers and mathematical theories. Both were described as quite bright.
A little over a month ago, Pollock called Wyant, told of how he got his pilot's license and invited his friend to the Bay Area.
Wyant left Massachusetts on a business trip to the Bay Area but arranged it primarily to share time with Pollock, Carole Wyant said. ``That was his best friend; of course he agreed to see him when he asked.''
She was so distraught about not finding her husband that she sent her brother on his own helicopter search. She was in the process of hiring a private search group when news of the discovery reached her. She then told her children, Elizabeth, 8, and Gregory Andrew, 6.
``Now I can bring him home, and his children can visit daddy,'' she said. ``I have promised them I will do my best to fill daddy's shoes. But I'm not daddy.''
Woman presses search for husband, missing plane
Family distributes leaflets on coast; light aircraft carried two men
By Elizabeth WassermanThree weeks after a small plane carrying Carol Wyant's husband and his childhood friend disappeared near Half Moon Bay, the Massachusetts woman dispatched her brother to California on Thursday to canvass coastal communities with fliers desperately seeking to generate new leads and keep the official search going.
The disappearance of the Cessna 152 single-engine plane on the evening of June 16---Father's Day---remains largely a mystery.
No wreckage has been located. The bodies of Geoffrey Wyant, 39, of Chelmsford, Mass., and his friend James Pollack, 40, of Fremont, have not been recovered.
Family members say they have received sometimes conflicting information from authorities and the rental plane company. But the two friends, who apparently left San Jose's Reid-Hillview Airport at 7:56 p.m. for a pleasure trip around the Bay Area, have seemingly vanished without a trace.
``If I can't find out for certain, at least I can say I tried everything,'' Carol Wyant, a mother of two children ages 6 and 8, said in a telephone interview Thursday from the East Coast. ``If my children have to grow up without a father, at least I can say to them, `Mommy did everything she could.' And if things still don't work out and we never know, maybe it's just God's will.''
Wyant's brother, Paul Chang, a computer programmer from Houston, spent Thursday canvassing Half Moon Bay shopping centers and the local airport, seeking more information.
Chang said he plans to see whether the post office in Half Moon Bay can distribute fliers to each household in the community, appealing for information about any personal belongings, any signs of wreckage or anyone who may have witnessed the plane's disappearance. In addition, Geoffrey Wyant's employer, Sun Microsystems, arranged to have a few employees assist the family in distributing fliers this weekend.
Wyant had traveled to California on a business trip. He worked for Sun Microsystems in Massachusetts but often had to travel to the company's Silicon Valley headquarters.
His family believes Wyant joined his friend, Pollack, an amateur pilot who had logged about 70 hours of flying time, for an early-evening flight. Wyant never signed a passenger registry at Nice Air, a plane rental company in San Jose. Pollack did not file a flight plan, so air traffic controllers did not know the plane was missing until two days later, when Wyant's worried co-workers reported him missing.
Authorities initially reported that the pilot radioed the Half Moon Bay Airport with plans to land the plane at the fogged-in airstrip. But family members say they later contacted the airport and were told the airport was closed at that hour and no one would have been there to answer such a call.
A search led by the Civil Air Patrol, including assistance from the Air Force, Coast Guard and National Guard, has since been called off, Wyant said.
Her brother, Chang, said that investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board had told him that they believed the plane went down in about 27 feet of water off Half Moon Bay. But he said other officials indicated they were not positive and gave different accounts of the plane's flight path.
The NTSB was unavailable for comment Thursday because of the Independence Day holiday.
Pollack, a computer aficionado, had moved to Fremont six months ago from Japan to start a business venture in Silicon Valley. He and Wyant grew up together in Delaware, Ohio, and attended grade school, high school and Ohio State University together.
Search continues for missing plane: Civil Air Patrol volunteers continued to search for a Fremont man and his missing plan Monday. The plane disappeared more than a week ago after flying near Half Moon Bay Airport on a sightseeing trip. Ground search teams from as ar away as Travis Air Force Base, Concord and Marin County have par- ticipated in the fruitless efforts to find 40-yr-old James Pollock and his friend, Geoffrey Wyant of Massachusetts. Together with volunteer pilots who have logged over 150 flight hours, the search-and-rescue volunteers have covered about 1,900 square miles between Half Moon Bay and Watsonville. Major Richard Bradley, mission coordinator of the Civil Air Patrol, said the search will continue today.Received 27 June 1996 from PAPD. Thanks to Officer Dennis Burns
San Jose Mercury-News
Thursday, June 20, 1996
Section: Local
Page: 1B
By DAN REED, Mercury News Staff WriterRescue planes scoured the wooded, steep terrain surrounding the Half Moon Bay Airport on Wednesday but failed to find a rookie pleasure-cruising pilot from Fremont and his passenger who had radioed their plans to land at the foggy airstrip Sunday night, authorities said.
The pilot, James Pollock, 40, flying a rented two-seater Cessna 152, lifted off with his boyhood friend, Jeff Wyant, 39, a Sun Microsystems worker from Massachusetts, at 7:56 p.m. after a shorter jaunt from Reid-Hillview Airport.
They flew to see the sights of San Francisco, swung south and radioed a planned stop at the shrouded strip at 8:44 p.m. They were never heard from again.
An all-day hunt Wednesday by seven search planes and several ground crews found no sign of Pollock, Wyant or the plane, aviation officials said.
The search will resume at 8 a.m. today.
Worried co-workers at Sun Microsystems in Mountain View alerted authorities after Wyant didn't show up for scheduled presentations Monday or Tuesday, Fremont police Officer Kevin Gott said.
''These are two punctual, dependable guys,'' he said. ''We haven't turned up anything other than maybe a possible tragedy.''
Lt. Morris Hoodye, a spokesman for the Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary of the Air Force, said the plane, rented from Nice Air training school in San Jose, is officially considered missing, not wrecked.
The director of Nice Air, who didn't want his name used, said Pollock was a ''conscientious'' pilot who had learned to fly at the San Jose school and had ''about 100 hours'' of air time.
He said Pollock rented the plane ''for a bay tour'' - a pleasure spin to see the sights - but apparently swung back, frustrated by the blanket of fog, and prepared to set down at the Half Moon Bay airfield.
The flight school instructor said Pollock could land only by sight, not by instruments.
The airport has no control tower.
Revealing no hint of concern, Pollock radioed the Federal Aviation Administration about his intent to land but made no further contact.
He had not filed a flight plan, which meant his disappearance didn't trigger the search until co-workers began asking questions.
Pollock, who speaks fluent Japanese, has been on sabbatical from his job overseas and had been spending time with his boyhood pal, who was in the Bay Area for the business trip.
The men grew up around the corner from each other in the East, Gott said.
Frank Sylvestri, a federal aviation examiner with decades of experience at the Half Moon Bay Airport, said the weather was nasty Sunday night and would be especially challenging for a green pilot.
''We had pretty lousy weather over the weekend,'' Sylvestri said. ''If you're unfamiliar with the area, then (a landing) would be difficult. If you're familiar, then it's not so difficult.''
Received 27 June 96. Thanks to Paul McJones
San Jose Mercury-NewsFriday, June 21, 1996
Section: Local
Page: 1B
By DANIEL VASQUEZ, Mercury News Staff WriterHis wife's gentle warning didn't keep Geoffrey Wyant from sharing the joy of flight with his best friend from boyhood, James Pollock, a novice pilot from Fremont.
''I told him '' 'You better not get on that plane.' I just worry like that,'' said Wyant's distraught wife, Carole. ''But I knew he wouldn't listen. He loves his best friend.''
Wyant, 39, of Chelmsford, Mass., and Pollock, 40, have been missing since Sunday night, when they radioed the Half Moon Bay Airport with plans to land their rented two-seater Cessna 152 at the fogged airstrip. The same thick fog thwarted air and land searchers Wednesday.
''It's not as easy to find a plane as people might think,'' said Capt. Dave Coppom of the Civil Air Patrol, who is coordinating the search with the Air Force, Coast Guard and National Guard.
''If a plane hits a tree going 100 miles per hour, which is not fast for a plane, it will break into many small pieces. And those are hard to find when you're dealing with 90-foot redwood trees in the way.''
Officials heard no distress signals but said the signals would not come through if the plane landed in water or if the electronic transmitter that would help searchers find the plane had broken in the crash.
Pollock, an amateur pilot with about 70 hours of flying time, did not file a flight plan when he left Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose at 7:56 p.m. Sunday - so air-traffic controllers did not know the plane was missing until Tuesday, when Wyant's worried co-workers reported his disappearance.
Wyant, an avid reader who loved to read J.R.R. Tolkien's ''Hobbit'' and ''Lord of the Rings'' to his children, was in the Bay Area on business for his employer, Sun Microsystems in Massachusetts.
But family members and friends know he worked out that deal to see the friend he spent many winters sledding with in their hometown of Delaware, Ohio.
''Jim was so excited about his new flying interest. There is no way my husband could have told him no,'' said Carole Wyant. ''Geoff is a very loyal friend.'' Indeed their friendship thickened like blood over the years as the duo followed each other from grade school to high school to Ohio State University. Later in life, as oceans and jobs separated them, they remained in constant contact. Wyant's two young children, Rebecca Elizabeth, 8, and Gregory Andrew, 6, know Pollock as ''Uncle Jim.''
''They had one of those special relationships. . . . You may only have one or two of those in a lifetime,'' said Diane Pollock, who is married to one of Pollock's two brothers.
''They always stayed in touch and (made sure) to see each other at least every couple of years,'' said Pollock. Relatives are gathered at the family home in Delaware, Ohio, waiting for phone updates from Fremont, Palo Alto and San Jose police.
Pollock, a high-tech computer addict and world traveler, moved to Fremont six months ago from Japan to be close to Silicon Valley, said his father, Fred, from the family home in Ohio. Pollock graduated with three degrees from Ohio State University - math, computer science and Japanese history.
He taught English privately and also worked for Kumon Book Co. in Osaka, and was planning a trip back to Japan to collect the rest of his belongings.
Diane Pollock said her family was extremely appreciative of the efforts of local police and searchers who are trying to find her brother-in-law.
''We're too many miles away and their calls to us is what keeps us going.''
Received 26 June 96. Thanks to Sam Kendall
HALF MOON BAY (BCN)San Mateo County officials say a team of divers aided by a special sonar unit is searching waters off Pillar Point Harbor for signs of a small plane or its two occupants missing for more than four days.
Lt. Larry Boss, of the county sheriff's department, said the trio of divers is following up on a report something unusual yesterday, visible deep below the water's surface 300 feet south of the harbor's entrance.
The Half Moon Bay Airport, where James Pollock of Fremont and his friend appeared headed, lies nearby tucked into the harbor's curve.
But Boss said search conditions remain iffy today, because strong winds kick up that make diving hazardous.
Fog has also been a problem for Civil Air Patrol pilots who began scanning a 10-mile stretch of the coast since Wednesday morning, in addition to portions of the Santa Cruz Mountains near the water.
``They don't see any debris or anything,'' Boss commented today, ``so it's kind of strange. Normally you'd see some debris.'' County search-and-rescue leaders say the sonar equipment in use sends sound waves to the side and is useful for sweeping broad sections of underwater area.
Pollock, 40, and his passenger from Mass. who was visiting on business, left Reed-Hillview Airport in San Jose just before 8 p.m. Sunday on a sightseeing tour of the Bay area.
About 40 minutes later, the rented Cessna 152 made its last radio transmission near the Half Moon Bay Airport. Neither Pollock nor his passenger, Geoffrey Wyant, have turned up since.
Alice Mansell, of the Civil Air Patrol, said ground and air searches continue today and are likely to go on through the weekend. Because foggy, overcast weather persists on the coast, a number of pilots are concentrating on the possibility that Pollock may have headed south toward Monterey along a flight path with which he apparently was familiar.
The Fremont man, who had about 100 hours' experience in the air, rented the two-seater training plane from Nice Aviation at Reed- Hillview. Mansell said searchers will keep looking for the small plane's trademark white body with a red stripe through dense coastal vegetation until they either find something or exhaust all options, as has happened in the past.
``Between the Peninsula cities and the coast there are quite a few air wrecks since World War II that have never been found,'' Mansell said. ``We're always optimistic,'' she added.
A San Jose police say a search for a plane flown by a Fremont man that has been missing since Sunday night is focusing on the Half Moon Bay area because that's where he filed his last radio report.
Officer Don Meade says 40-year-old James Pollock left Reid Hillview Airport just before 8 p.m. Sunday in a Cessna 152 to fly himself and another man on a tour around the Bay area. Pollock's passenger on the flight was an Ohio man named Jeff Wyant.
According to Meade, the pair reported back sporadically to the South Bay airport as they flew north over the Peninsula, then swung east over San Francisco Bay, out toward the Golden Gate Bridge and finally back south along the coast. About 40 minutes after takeoff, Meade said, Pollock called in to say he could see Half Moon Bay. ``That's the last they heard from him,'' Meade said.
Late yesterday afternoon, the officer said family members filed a missing person report with Palo Alto police, who relayed the information to San Jose officers.
Meade said the Fremont man has about eight months of flying experience. He said it is viewed as highly unlikely the pair might have touched down somewhere without contacting worried family members. Meade said Fremont police will now coordinate the missing persons aspect of the case.
San Mateo County Detective Sgt. Ray Richardson says search-and- recue pilots are being organized to search the Half Moon Bay area.
The Coast Guard is also taking part in the search.
Received 26 June 96. Thanks to Sam Kendall
PENINSULA--Missing Plane Sought on Coast. Missing Plane Sought on Coast Half Moon Bay -- Searchers in planes and on foot combed beaches and hills along the San Mateo County coast yesterday searching for a missing Fremont pilot and his friend who left a San Jose airport on Sunday for a sightseeing tour.James Pollock, 40, was last heard from at about 9 p.m. Sunday when he told air traffic controllers that he had the Half Moon Bay Airport in sight and was planning to land, San Jose police officer Don Meade said.
Pollock and a friend, Jeff Wyant of Ohio, took off from Reid- Hillview Airport shortly before 8 p.m. for a tour of the Bay Area in a single-engine Cessna 152, Meade said. The weather along the coast was foggy and windy at the time, he said.
When the two failed to return, Pollock's family filed a missing person's report, Meade said. Pollock had been flying for less than a year.
The search was suspended at nightfall but will resume in the morning.
Two reported missing after boarding plane
Fremont A Fremont man and a friend visiting from Massachusetts were reported missing after they took a flight in a small airplane but failed to return, officials said.
Fremont resident James Pollack, 40, was due to arrive at the Half Moon Bay airport shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday in his Cessna airplane after taking off earlier from Reid Hillview Airport in San Jose, police said. He did not land at either airport.
Although it was not confirmed, officials believe that Geoffrey Wyant, 39, of Chelmsford, Mass., boarded the plane with Pollack. Wyant was reported missing to Palo Alto police Tuesday after he failed to show up for two business meetings.
The Civil Air Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Air National Guard resumed the search for the plane Thursday, police said.
Search continues for missing plane.Half Moon Bay Searchers looking from San Francisco to Santa Cruz have failed to turn up any sign of a small plane that disappeared with two men aboard.
James Pollock, 40, a Fremont resident who piloted the rented Cessna 152, and his friend Geoffrey Wyant, 39, a Sun Microsystems engineer from Chelmsford, Mass., took off for San Francisco from Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose around 8 p.m. Sunday.
Air traffic controllers last had contact with Pollock just before 9 p.m. when he radioed that fog was causing him to turn back from San Francisco and that he would attempt a landing at Half Moon Bay Airport, said Capt. Dave Coppom of the Civil Air Patrol, which is heading up the search.
The plane was not heard from again. Officials heard no distress signals, but said the signals would not come through if the plane landed in water.
Eight planes and ground crews Thursday scoured the search area, which stretches from the Golden Gate to Santa Cruz.
"We don't expect anything other than possibly an accident," Fremont police Officer Kevin Gott said. "Both of these guys are very responsible. Both had commitments that they needed to meet, and they didn't. That's very unusual for both of them."
Divers investigate possible plane debris. Half Moon Bay Scuba divers were investigating Friday what might be the wreckage of a small plane that disappeared Sunday with two men aboard.An oil slick was spotted Tuesday by an Air National Guard search plane, but fog kept searchers from doing anything about it until Friday morning.
The harbormaster at Pillar Point reported that his sonar picked up something 25 feet below the surface and about 200 to 300 yards off the end of the Half Moon Bay Airport runway.
The plane disappeared while on a flight from San Francisco to Santa Cruz.
James Pollock, 40, a Fremont resident who piloted the rented Cessna 152, and his friend Geoffrey Wyant, 39, a Sun Microsystems engineer from Chelmsford, Mass., took off for San Francisco from Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose around 8 p.m. Sunday.
Air traffic controllers last had contact with Pollock just before 9 p.m. when he radioed that fog was causing him to turn back from San Francisco and that he would attempt a landing at Half Moon Bay Airport, said Capt. Dave Coppom of the Civil Air Patrol, which is heading up the search.
The plane was not heard from again.
"We don't expect anything other than possibly an accident," Fremont police Officer Kevin Gott said. "Both of these guys are very responsible. Both had commitments that they needed to meet, and they didn't. That's very unusual for both of them."