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Plane 'nearly vertical' in fatal crash

Massive impact outside Wray took three lives

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 22, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

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Larry Hergott, father of Zachary Hergott, a pilot killed in a plane crash Jan. 15 near Wray, holds a toy plane that Zachary had kept since he was a child and that apparently rekindled his fascination with flying when he rediscovered it several years ago.

Photo by Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky

Larry Hergott, father of Zachary Hergott, a pilot killed in a plane crash Jan. 15 near Wray, holds a toy plane that Zachary had kept since he was a child and that apparently rekindled his fascination with flying when he rediscovered it several years ago.

Zachary Hergott logged more than 1,500 hours flying. His family learned Saturday that he had died in eastern Colorado.

Photo by Special to the Rocky

Zachary Hergott logged more than 1,500 hours flying. His family learned Saturday that he had died in eastern Colorado.

Hergott was an athlete who excelled at several sports.

Photo by Special to the Rocky

Hergott was an athlete who excelled at several sports.

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A twin-engine plane that crashed outside the Wray Municipal Airport last week was "nearly vertical" when it hit the ground and compacted to about one-seventh of its size, investigators said Wednesday.

"The aircraft is quite a long one - maybe 30 or 40 feet," said Jennifer Rodi, lead investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. "It was compressed."

The crash the morning of Jan. 15 killed Daniel Rojas, David Carey and Zachary Hergott. Rodi said investigators haven't determined who was piloting the plane, but that Hergott was in the aft of the fuselage at the time of impact.

Hergott's body wasn't discovered for two days, when investigators found his wallet in the wreckage. Rodi said investigators weren't looking for a third person because only Rojas and Carey were listed on the flight plan.

Rodi said the investigation will take from eight to 10 months and that the wreckage has been moved to the Greeley airport.

Rojas and Hergott were friends and were taking the aircraft, owned by J.W. Oil Company Inc., from Denver to Wray to Dallas, according to Hergott's parents - Larry and Diane Hergott.

The Hergotts said their 32-year-old son had discovered flying as a passion in the past several years after bouncing around looking for something to cling to. He was a good athlete - playing lacrosse at the University of Massachusetts but also excelling in basketball, baseball and swimming.

"He was a natural athlete," Diane Hergott said.

She said that one day several years ago - she couldn't remember exactly when - Zachary was unpacking a box and found a toy airplane from his childhood. It seemed to rekindle a love of flying in him, she said.

He became focused on it as a career - already acting as an instructor and teacher as well as exploring opportunities to fly commercial planes. Zachary logged more than 1,500 hours flying.

"People might say aviation took his life because he died in a plane crash," Larry Hergott said. "But we would say he found this thing he connected with, had a talent for and that gave him so much pleasure."

Larry Hergott, a cardiologist at the University of Colorado Medical Center, said his son's generosity was evident the night before the crash.

Zachary couldn't sleep, so he helped his father find a book chapter that had been lost on the computer. Then he helped his mother, a philosophy professor at Front Range Community College, prepare a syllabus.

It was the last time the parents would see him.

"I would say, as a mother, I worried about him," Diane Hergott said. "I don't like small planes.

"The first time he soloed, I remembered as he was in the air that this was the direction his life had taken. And I thought if I ever got the news that his plane had crashed, I'd say to myself that he died doing what he loved."

Both parents said they were alarmed Friday afternoon when someone scheduled to take a flying lesson from their son called them to say that he never showed up.

They called the Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB and learned there were no survivors in a crash that had happened outside of Wray.

When they learned of Zachary's death on Saturday, the family pulled together. Zachary's older brother, Matthew Hergott, flew in from New York. His older sister, Leah, and her husband, Tom Weihe, were distraught, as well. Weihe had taken flying lessons from Zachary.

"Zach is not only my teacher, he is my friend," Weihe told the family.

Services are scheduled for Feb. 7 at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church at 1 p.m.

The family suggested donations to be made in Zachary Hergott's name to Metropolitan State College of Denver Aviation Department Scholarship Fund.

Comments

  • January 24, 2009

    9:36 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    CheyanneH writes:

    Larry and Diane, we are truly sorry for your loss. It was a pleasure to meet you; however I wish so dearly that it had been under different circumstances. May God comfort and keep you during this difficult time and know my whole family is here for you should you need anything. I wish I'd met Zach.