Searchers find plane, bodies of Texas family in Park County
By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published August 18, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
Updated August 18, 2008 at 7:10 a.m.
Family friends identified those on board as Tommy Jacomini, an energy executive from Houston, his wife Susie and their children, Thomas, 8, and Vivi, 6. The family was flying home to their ranch in Brenham, Texas, from a vacation in Steamboat Springs.
Searchers on Sunday located the bodies of a family of four from Houston who were killed when their plane slammed into a rugged Park County mountainside Friday while they were flying home from vacation.
Maj. Mark Young of the Colorado Civil Air Patrol confirmed that there were four fatalities.
"It's certainly not the outcome we had hoped for, but at least it's been found," Young said.
A hiker discovered the crash site on the southeast side of Mount Guyot and scrambled down the mountain until he was able to use his cell phone to dial 911 at 1:05 p.m., according to Summit County sheriff's spokeswoman Paulette Horr.
The hiker led searchers to the crash site, arriving at about 3:30 p.m., Young said.
Authorities confirmed that the aircraft was a plane that Thomas Paul Jacomini Jr. was flying from Steamboat Springs to Texas when it went missing Friday morning.
Searchers had been looking since that time for Jacomini, his wife, Susie, and their two children, Vivi, 6, and Thomas, 8.
Jacomini, who Young described as a "very experienced" pilot, had not filed a flight plan.
Officials with the Park and Summit county coroner's offices transported the remains to Jefferson County for autopsy and identification.
Prior to the discovery, about 30 volunteers had been searching an area that includes a 15- mile stretch of rugged mountains near the Continental Divide in Summit County. Crews were searching on foot, on all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles, Horr said.
Summit County sheriff's officials say radar detected the four-seater Cessna 182 plane Friday near Green Mountain Reservoir, about 30 miles northwest of Sunday's search area.
Seven ground crews were searching an area stretching from Keystone Mountain to Georgia Pass east of Breckenridge.
On Saturday, rain and snow in the area hampered search efforts. Young, who was coordinating a search from the air, said 6 inches of snow was on the ground in the area.
FAA spokeswoman Karen Byrd said the plane took off from Steamboat Springs and was en route to Sugar Land, Texas, a suburb of Houston.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Jacomini was a University of Texas graduate who worked in the natural gas business in Houston.
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A Rocky Mountain News and MediaStorm production
August 18, 2008
2:41 a.m.
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Who_Me writes:
Thanks for rehashing the story. The previous version of this was different in what way?
August 18, 2008
7:46 a.m.
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intothelens writes:
Doesn't matter. At all. Reporters are allowed rewrites. Hell, they should always be encouraged to improve the product, even if it's simple structural or grammatical changes. It's no different than you always being encouraged to flip a better burger...
August 18, 2008
8:21 a.m.
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LingLingfor_prez writes:
Why did you have to mention burgers? Now I am hungry...
August 18, 2008
8:43 a.m.
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DenGirl writes:
I was surprised that the TV news had to go and discuss the "smell" of the wreckage. That was probably too much information. What a tragedy for the Jacomini family. They are beautiful.
August 18, 2008
9:07 a.m.
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M2 writes:
So would it be less of a tragedy if they were not as beautiful?
August 18, 2008
9:52 a.m.
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tony_in_brighton writes:
they are a beautiful family. and that's the real shame in it. his wife and kids got punished for _his_ hubris.
maybe it's because he felt invincible. maybe it's because he didn't respect flying in Colorado. the unfortunate truth is that he had no business whatsoever flying in such a small plane (a C182), in inclimate weather, in the Colorado highlands, and without a flight plane.
i am very saddened by this loss, but hope that his bevy of mistake will be a lesson to other pilots and help save some lives in the long run.
August 18, 2008
12:10 p.m.
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tony_in_brighton writes:
thanks for catching my typo -- I'm at work and was trying to squeeze in the comment. ;-)
August 18, 2008
1:25 p.m.
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ripfree writes:
I believe it's "inclement" weather. Please don't assume hubris. Mountain weather is subject to extreme unforcast changes. The hiker who found the wreck could have died in sudden inclement weather too.