Vladislav Milushev wanted to see the redwoods.
The young pilot and flight instructor was picking out destinations for a cross-country airplane trip with Rick Gustafson, a friend of a friend who wanted to learn how to fly. At 60, Gustafson still longed for adventure, whether it was skydiving, riding his Harley or just cheering for his beloved Miami Dolphins. For his latest adventure, Gustafson suggested that he and Milushev fly across the country, from Plant City, Fla., to either Las Vegas or Reno. But Milushev’s stepfather, himself a retired Delta captain and ex-Navy pilot, said that was too dangerous. He didn’t want Vladek, as Milushev’s family called him, navigating through the thin air of the rockies.
So Milushev chose another destination. “You know what?” he said. “I’ve never seen those big trees you can drive through.” At 30, he’d already seen more of the world than most folks. As a child, he and his parents fled the fallout of Chernobyl, moving from Belarus to Poland. When he was 17, he and his mother followed missionaries to Nashville, Tenn. His current home was in a suburb of Orlando, Fla. But he’d never been to the Pacific Northwest. Gustafson had. He said it was beautiful.
Which is how it happened that in the late-night hours of March 1, with rain and wind gaining strength off the coast, Milushev and Gustafson found themselves approaching the Arcata-Eureka Airport in a rented Diamond DA-40, a lightweight, single-prop four-seater being mercilessly tossed about in the escalating storm. Through radio static, Milushev complained to the Seattle-based Air Traffic Control operator: “It’s really turbulent right now.”
At just below 4,000 feet, Milushev, following the controller’s instructions, switched his radio over to the local common traffic advisory frequency, where approaching pilots communicate with one another. (The local airport has no control tower of its own.) The Seattle controller, now unable to reach Milushev, then watched with concern as over the next 15 minutes the plane dropped lower and lower, sinking well below the minimum crossing altitude for a runway approach. Multiple times, the controller tried to reestablish radio contact, to no avail. He called Air Traffic Control in Oakland and asked them to try Milushev on the radio — also unsuccessful. Finally, he summoned his supervisor, and together they watched as three radar sweeps showed the airplane moving south-southeast toward the jagged coast, less than a mile from Trinidad Head and a mere 100 feet above the surface of the sea. The airport runway lies at 221 feet.
And then the plane disappeared.
What happened next remains unclear despite investigations by the Coast Guard, the Humboldt County Department of Public Works and the National Transportation Safety Board, not to mention scrutiny by the friends and families of both Milushev and Gustafson. What’s known is that shortly after the plane disappeared, Humboldt County Airports Manager Jacqueline Hulsey told the Seattle Center supervisor that the plane had landed safely at the Arcata-Eureka Airport when, in fact, it had crashed into the ocean six-and-a-half miles away. This erroneous report, along with an unexplained delay the following morning, postponed search and rescue efforts by more than 12 hours. The families of Milushev and Gustafson believe that lapse could have meant the difference between life and death.
Four days after the crash, debris was found on the shore between Patrick’s Point and Agate Beach. Of the 12 pieces of airframe eventually recovered, the largest was a ragged slice of wing skin measuring seven feet long and nine inches wide. Searchers also found one of the two front seat cushions and a small chunk from the baggage compartment with a data tag that was used to identify the debris. The remains of the two men have not been found.
In September, the NTSB released a report on the incident, and the information shines a harsh light on local airport personnel, though it fails to illuminate exactly how the mistake was made that night. More than nine months later, the families of Milushev and Gustafson are struggling with grief, confusion and anger. They’ve held memorial services, they’ve seen the men’s names engraved on the Trinidad lighthouse plaque honoring those who’ve been lost at sea, and they’ve tried to move on with their lives. But they’re haunted by the thought that it’s possible, however unlikely, that the men survived their plummet into the sea, only to be left to die in the cold, choppy water — perhaps injured and frightened — because of a mistake for which they’ve received no explanation, and no apology.
Milushev’s stepfather, Richard Collier, doesn’t consider himself a stepfather but rather a father to the fallen pilot. He met Milushev’s mother, Larissa Luneva, online in 1990, and married her in 2001. At that point, he said in a recent phone interview from his Florida home, “Vladek became my son.” Collier described Milushev as loving, caring and very motivated. Fluent in Russian, Polish and English, Milushev eventually chose to follow in the footsteps of Collier and his two sons from a previous marriage — all pilots. After graduating from a Delta connection flight academy, Milushev became an instructor and, later, a commercial pilot for Delta regional carrier Comair. “His dream in life,” Collier recalled, “was to be a FedEx pilot, so he could fly to Russia and Belarus and fly all around the world.”
When Rick Gustafson asked if he’d like to fly across the country, Milushev agreed. After just a few hours on the phone and Internet Friday, Feb. 27, he managed to find a plane available to lease the following morning. At 8 a.m. Saturday, Milushev and Gustafson arrived at the tiny Plant City Municipal Airport, 20 miles east of Tampa. Milushev completed a rental agreement, paid a $1,000 security deposit and went through his ground and in-flight checkout procedures. By 11 a.m. they were airborne, racing the sun to the western horizon. After a short stop in Mobile, Ala., the men continued on to Huntsville, Texas, roughly 70 miles north of Houston, touching down at 7:20 p.m. CST. As an airport employee refilled the plane’s tank with 39 gallons of 100-weight low-lead aviation fuel, Milushev told him that they wanted to continue on that night. But both men were tired, and they soon reconsidered. The owner of Huntsville Aviation drove them to a nearby hotel, and the men ate at the restaurant next door before turning in.
At 7:00 the next morning — March 1, the day of the crash — the first employee to arrive at Huntsville Municipal Airport found Milushev and Gustafson already there, performing their pre-flight inspection. Fifteen minutes later they were taxiing for takeoff. In Sedona, Ariz., that afternoon, Milushev called home and spoke with his mom. She was concerned about him: Had he eaten? Yes, he assured her, he was eating right now, in fact. The conversation was brief — “He was always in a rush,” Collier said — and turned out to be their last.
They left Sedona at 5:30 p.m. MST and continued their marathon hopscotch westward, flying past Palmdale, Calif., the destination listed on their flight plan, to arrive at Meadows Field in Bakersfield at 6:41 p.m. Pacific Standard Time — almost 35 hours since they’d departed Florida. Less than an hour later they were in the sky once more, headed north with a full tank of fuel and a route clearance directly to Arcata.
With the irrational guilt that often accompanies the death of a loved one, Collier blames himself for not somehow finding a way to discourage his son from leaving Bakersfield that night. “I have to live with that,” he said. “I cautioned him. I pleaded with him to call me. But he’s a young man, and he’s well qualified, and I didn’t get a chance to … .” Here his voice broke. Gathering himself, he continued. “If I’d been in the airplane with him it wouldn’t have happened.”
Just after 10 p.m., Milushev contacted the Federal Aviation Administration’s Oakland Flight Watch station to ask about reports of turbulence he’d been overhearing. The flight watch briefer gave him the conditions in Arcata: light rain, winds at 10 knots, gusting to 20. As they continued north the weather worsened, and Milushev, switching frequencies from Oakland to Seattle, reported intense turbulence on multiple occasions. Following the approach pattern of other northbound pilots that night, Milushev flew beyond the Arcata-Eureka Airport and out over the ocean before doubling back for an RNAV, or instrument-guided, approach to runway 14 — the longer of the airport’s two criss-crossing runways.
Radar data shows that, in the flight’s final nine minutes, the plane lost altitude steadily at about 500 feet per minute. No emergency transmissions were received from Milushev or the plane’s emergency locater transmitter. The elapsed time between takeoff in Plant City, Fla., and impact off the coast of Trinidad was 39 hours, of which Milushev had spent nearly 28 on-duty and 23 in flight.
Humboldt County Airports Manager Jacqueline Hulsey was at home when she received the call from the Seattle Center supervisor. He told her that plane number N521DS had been lost from radar, and he asked her to check for the missing “Diamond jet” (the plane was not, in fact, a jet) and call him back. About five minutes later, he realized his mistake and called Hulsey again. During this second conversation, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s report, Hulsey told him that the plane was safely on the ground at the Arcata-Eureka Airport.
“N521DS is on the ground?” he asked.
“Yes,” Hulsey replied.
So the supervisor closed out Milushev’s flight plan. Between the two calls from Seattle, Hulsey had spoken, at least once, with Tom Sobehrad, the airport service worker on duty that night. Somewhere in that five-minute window was the moment where the mistake was made. Whether Sobehrad thought he saw the plane and made a faulty report or Hulsey misheard or misinterpreted what he said remains unknown.
“[D]ue to significant conflicts in their written and oral statements,” the NTSB report reads, “the content of their phone conversation could not be positively determined.” Kurt Anderson, the NTSB’s investigator in charge, found that Hulsey and Sobehrad disagreed on just about everything that occurred during those five minutes, including what exactly she asked him to do, whether she mentioned that the plane had been lost from radar (and that it was not a jet), whether she gave the airplane’s full registration number and whether he (Sobehrad) was supposed to call Hulsey back. They didn’t even agree on how many times they’d talked on the phone.
When the Journal asked Anderson if, in the course of his investigation, he got the impression that one or the other was lying, he replied, “We don’t do impressions. We only do objective information.”
In the airport log book that night, Sobehrad made the following entry:
“J.H. called @ 11:15 p.m. — asked me to locate pilot who just landed to call Seattle Center to cancel [close out] flight plan. The plane and pilot were nowhere to be found.” (Reached by phone last week, Sobehrad referred all questions to Hulsey, who the Journal has been unable to reach. More on that later.)
Regardless of the reason, once the false report had been made to Seattle the Federal Aviation Administration was absolved of any responsibility for the ensuing delay in search and rescue efforts, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. “Any system relies on accurate information. So if we call an airport manager and [s]he says, ‘Yeah, [the plane] is here… .'” Gregor left it at that.
Airport professionals say “N-numbers,” or registration numbers, get mixed up all the time. “Believe it or not, that’s kind of a common occurrence,” said Mac McCall, an accredited airport executive and safety expert based in Sedona, Ariz. “Just here the other day we had two Canadian airplanes on the ground — two license numbers apart — and we fueled the wrong airplane.” It’s also fairly routine, he added, for pilots to forget to close out their flight plans. (Pilots must close out, or “cancel,” their flight plan once they land.)
Humboldt County Director of Public Works Thomas Mattson agreed. “This happens on a regular basis, where we get a call [about] a missing airplane, and 99.99 percent of the time it’s [because] the pilot didn’t follow up with the flight plan.” Not that such frequency should affect procedure, Mattson said. “In a situation like this, you have to make the assumption that the plane is down, no matter what the history says.”
Until 1997, the Arcata-Eureka Airport had a manned flight service station on-site, which allowed air traffic control specialists to monitor landings and communicate directly with pilots. KIEM-TV Meteorologist Jim Bernard served locally as an FAA-certified air traffic controller for roughly 20 years and says eliminating the service station increased risk for incoming pilots. “What you lost was the local immediacy of a human failsafe on the ground,” he said. Airport service workers are on the ground, but their duties are more limited and their job requirements less restrictive than those of air traffic controllers.
The NTSB has yet to release its final report, which will outline the accident’s probable cause. But Collier thinks he know what it will say. He believes the weather conditions that night were simply beyond his son’s capabilities, especially at the end of an 18-hour travel day. And he said the chances that Milushev and Gustafson survived the crash are slim, but not impossible. Gustafson’s family agrees.
“There’s no way to know if they actually died instantly and whether the search … could have saved them,” Judi Gustafson, Rick’s wife, said recently from her home in Casselberry, Fla. “But she [Hulsey] never gave them a shot.”
U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Russel Merrick told the Journal in March that, with local ocean temperatures of around 50 degrees, survivability in street clothes would have been somewhere between two and three hours. He also said that, if notified of the missing plane that night, search and rescue personnel could have been on the scene within minutes. Instead, Hulsey arrived at the airport the following morning and was told by a service worker that the plane and pilot had not been located. At 9 a.m., Hulsey called the Seattle Center and informed them that the plane was missing and may never have landed. The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department received a call from the California State Office of Emergency Services at 11 a.m., more than two hours after Hulsey learned that the plane was missing and 12 hours since it disappeared from radar.
The Sheriff’s Department initiated a search that would last for days, with pilots from U.S. Coast Guard Group Humboldt Bay scouring the coast while ground personnel combed the shore for debris. Searchers used sophisticated models of wind, tides and surface currents to predict likely spots for landfall. On March 3, the families of the missing men arrived in Humboldt County. Milushev’s stepfather, mother and grandparents came, as did Gustafson’s wife and adult daughter, Sheila Jenkins. They were all briefed by Coast Guard personnel and shown the spot where the plane likely went down, and over the next two days they were updated on every aspect of the search and rescue efforts.
When the search was finally called off, Collier understood. “I was satisfied they did everything they could possibly do to find my son,” he said.
However, both families still had unanswered questions. Gustafson’s wife and daughter, still in shock, went to the airport later that week, hoping to move their flight home up a day. Once there, they decided to ask the airport manager exactly what happened that night and what, if any, disciplinary actions were being taken. A secretary took their names and left to retrieve Hulsey, but when the secretary returned, Judi Gustafson recalled, she said that Hulsey had left for the day. They asked if she could be reached by cell phone and were told she’d left her cell phone behind and, anyway, the battery was dead. They asked if Hulsey was available later in the week and were told that her schedule was unpredictable.
The Journal has repeatedly attempted to reach Hulsey for comment, in March and numerous times over the past two weeks, leaving voicemails and messages with airport personnel. She has not returned the calls, though doing so — responding to questions and concerns from the public — is specifically listed as a duty in her job description. Judi Gustafson said she sent Hulsey an e-mail from Florida and got no response. The silence, she said, has only fueled her anger. Jenkins, Gustafson’s daughter, agreed, saying in an e-mail to the Journal that she remains dumbstruck by “the unprofessional attitude of Ms. Jacquelyn Hulsey, [who was] not even willing to face us and speak to us when we were in CA or to date for that matter.”
Milushev’s parents decided not to pursue contact with Hulsey. “My wife wanted to confront her,” Collier said, “but I said I don’t want to do that. [She] has to live with it, not us.”
Mattson, who as director of public works serves as Hulsey’s supervisor, was contrite when reached by the Journal. He explained that his department conducted an internal investigation following the incident and that “personnel actions” had been taken (he said he’s legally prevented from revealing what those actions were). Both Hulsey and Sobehrad remain in the positions they held in March, but airport procedures have changed. There is now a dedicated cell phone that stays with whomever is on duty. It’s used for direct communication with the FAA. When an aircraft disappears from radar, Mattson said, “We make the immediate assumption that plane is down and call everybody into action to find that plane.” The search isn’t called off, he said, until somebody positively identifies the plane and speaks with the pilot.
As for the events of March 1, Mattson said it was simply a communication breakdown. “Jackie thought she’d said certain things. [Sobehrad] thought he’d heard other things. Who knows which one is absolutely right?” Both feel awful about it, Mattson said. “This was a major tragedy, and they’ve taken it personally just as I took it personally. This is something that eats at you personally for a long, long time.”
He understands the families’ calls for accountability. “People need closure. We all do when something tragic like this happens. We all would like to say, this is exactly what happened and this is where the responsibility lies, etc. At this point the responsibility lies with our entire department,” Mattson said, “me as the bottom line.”
To date, the families of Milushev and Gustafson have not been contacted by any officials with the County of Humboldt, the FAA or the NTSB. Collier said he only learned that the NTSB had released its factual report because he did a Google search on the crash. When the Journal contacted Milushev’s wife and daughter, they were unaware of the report. Reading it, Jenkins later wrote, “opened a can of hurt that you cannot imagine. … I am VERY angry after reading the report over and over.”
She and Judi Gustafson believe that Hulsey was clearly negligent. They haven’t ruled out legal actions. “I would hate for any other family to have to go through this same thing,” Judi Gustafson said. “It’s the thing you never plan for. It’s the thing that completely changes the course of your life. Until you go through it,” she said, her voice jumping several octaves as she started to cry, “you don’t understand the impact that the loss of somebody close has.”
Shortly after her dad died, Jenkins found out she was pregnant. She’s due any day. This year has left her emotionally drained, she said, but she believes everything happens for a reason and feels surviving will ultimately make her stronger. Her e-mail ended on a light note:
“Funny how life happens. I lost my Dad and became unexpectedly pregnant with a son who will soon come into this world as ‘Brady Rick,’ Brady being after Tom Brady, the quarterback of my all-time-favorite New England Patriots (Dad and I were always rivals since he loved the Dolphins) and Rick after Dad. I wonder what he would think of me mixing the two names together. LOL!!!”
Milushev’s mother and stepfather remain in deep mourning, and the tragedy has only deepened. Thirty days after Milushev’s death, his girlfriend, Brandi Montana, was killed in a car wreck on the way to his memorial. Milushev’s mom can’t help thinking about her son’s body at the bottom of the ocean. She worries that fish are eating it. But her Russian Orthodox faith tells her he’s not really gone. There’s a spot for him at the family table and a candle burning in remembrance. Each night, they raise a glass to Vladek. Collier said he hopes that, if any good can come from this experience, it’s that the people who made mistakes might learn from them. But he’s not interested in revenge. “Nothing in this earth could heal the pain and bring him back to us,” he said. “Regardless of mistakes that were made by people there, it’s far from our mind. It’s just a tragedy that we have to live with.”
While still in Humboldt County, just after the crash, Milushev’s family spent a day driving the Avenue of the Giants, stopping periodically to stand in those massive shadows and crane their necks skyward. In an online memorial photo album created in Milushev’s honor, there are several photos from this day. One, posted by Larissa Collier, Milushev’s mother, shows her own mother, Milushev’s Russian grandma, standing at the edge of the damp, two-lane road, her arms reaching up longingly toward the mossy trunk of an ancient redwood. A Kleenex appears to be clenched in one outstretched hand, and her face is a portrait of pain. The caption, written by Larissa Collier and dated March 27, reads, “Avenue of the Giants in the Redwood forest Vladek wanted to see. We were his eyes.”
This article appears in The Plane That Wasn’t There.
Ms. Hulsey’s actions during and after this event are reprehensible. I believe she should resign or be discharged from her duties. One of the problems that led to this is that Ms. Hulsey is not a pilot (even though the job application recommends that the Airport Manager be a pilot.) As the article stated, airports get calls about missing aircraft all the time, and yes, 99.99% of the time it is because the pilot forgot to close out his flight plan. Because of this, airport personnel don’t get too excited when they receive calls of overdue aircraft. If however, as in this case, Center tells you that a tiny Diamond aircraft just disappeared off of radar during an instrument approach on a horribly stormy night, that should get one’s attention that something BAD just happened.
I believe that Ms. Hulsey, not being a pilot or having much aviation knowledge, did not understand the likelyhood that this was a real emergency and simply assumed it was another pilot who didn’t close a flight plan and just made a courtesy call to the airport without stressing the importance of what was happening.
This seems apparant to me in the entry made in the Airport Log by the worker on duty at the airport. His log says that Ms. Hulsey called and said to "have the pilot of the plane that just landed call Seatlle Center and close his flightplan." The airport worker then noted that "neither plane nor pilot were located". This sure looks to me like the proper information was not passed along to the airport worker actually on the scene.
I also find it absolutely disgusting that Ms. Hulsey refused to meet face to face with the relatives of the pilot and had her underlings tell obvious lies to help her avoid the family.
That said, the worst actions were those taken by the pilot himself who choose to fly a small aircraft into an area he was not familiar with, at night, during one of the worst storms of the year. This is the decision that ended his life and it is highly unlikely that even an immediate search would have ended any differently, of course, we can never know that for certain.
My Dad, Rick Gustafson’s death will not be in vain.
Ms. Hulsey, Airport Manager, of not just this airport but other airports as well in the area, may not be willing to face any of us or speak to any of us.
But, I know she is reading this, and I assure YOU, Ms. Hulsey, that YOU will be held accountable for your inexcusable negligence.
CHANGE will happen, so that no family will have to go through such a horrible experience, because you chose to go to bed and handle such a serious issue in the morning.
It may take me a while, to CHANGE the county, the govt., the FAA, etc., but I will go through all channels, to assure to prove that YOU, Ms. Hulsey are NOT qualified for the position you hold.
I will make sure CHANGE happens, to prevent Seattle from practically watching the plane drop into the water, and not be able to call out the Coast Guard themselves.
Yes, this was a very unofrtunate accident, and they may have died upon impact. Ms. Hulsey, that was not for you to decide, you don’t get to play God with peoples lives. As the Coast Guard said it happenned in their backyard they could have been there in minutes, to be sure, my Dad was not still alive, had YOU Ms. Hulsey not gone to bed that night after receiving such serious information.
I am NOT a vindictive person, however, you do NOT take your position serious enough for the title you hold. Your actions after the crash and to date prove this, over and over.
I understand "discipline actions" were taken, but, if you are still holding that position than they were not satisfactory actions to me.
Ms. Hulsey, and Humboldt County, you will hear my name, Sheila Jenkins, over and over in the future. Mark my words.
Anyone with additional information please feel free to contact me directly:
TLCOFFLORIDA@AOL.COM and I thank you in aadvance.
Regards,
Sheila Jenkins
Daughter of Rick Gustafson
The Gustafson family got a kick in the teeth instead of the hard answers the county OWED them when they came to the airport following their loved ones deaths. Would it have been easy to meet with them? No way. Was it her job to man up and be responsive? Absolutely.
Her boss offered the lame duck comment that some kind of disciplinary action appropriate to the event occurred. That isn’t good enough and his shallow response compared to the severity of the screw up indicates he may be over his head in his position as well. Other than dismissal, what on earth was this appropriate action? I for one know from seeing Hulsey at the airport following the incident that she certainly wasn’t suspended for any meaningful length of time.
Let’s say for arguments sake that it was an honest yet tragic mistake that resulted in the delay of rescue/recovery operations for the ill fated pilots. Even as an honest mistake, it happened on her “watch” and clearly she wasn’t “watching” closely enough to realize how serious the situation presented to her was. That is STILL a removable offense for an Airport Manager. Pause for a second and ponder this: it easily could have been a United flight out there with 30 people on it, one of them your loved one.
But that isn’t all by a long shot. Hulsey’s incompetent actions were compounded two further events that should have sealed the deal for her removal:
With Hulsey at the helm, everyone who travels to the Arcata airport should consider flying in or out of Crescent City for their own safety. Humboldt Board of Supervisors? Are you awake? Are your cell phones charged?
Humboldt Board of Supervisor Phone: (707) 476-2391
As a former employee of the arcata airport with humboldt county, WHEN THE PLANE WHENT MISSING Thomas THE EMPLOYEE ON DUTY AT THE TIME AT THE AIRPORT ASKED MRS. HULSEY THAT NEXT MORNING WHY SHE DID NOT TELL HIM WHY THE PLANE WAS MISSING. SHE REPLIED MRS HULSEY SAID "I WAS AFRAID TO TELL YOU THOMAS" and begang to cry. THIS WAS WHITNESSED BY ANOTHER PERSON IN THE ROOM. Mrs, Hulsey’s secretary Emily I can personaly acccount for several lies by ms.Hulsey, reguarding the removal of a boiler and she forceing employees to clean up the asbestose left behind with out any protection. When finally confronted about it she denied everything. Including how many people had been in the room "over a dozen in a one year period" when asked by the investigator how many people had been in the room including contracors ms Hulsey replied "one". Ms. Hulsey is a liar the people who work under her are scared to death of her. When ever anthing goes wrong up there it is the employees fault first. On multipal occations she has been proven wrong, her employees are punished for her incompetence and the county sweeps it under the rug to save face.
Jackie Hulsey should be fired. She has consistently ignored the wishes of the GA (General Aviation) community here. This is the backbone of aviation. Many of us local pilots have considered going to the board of supervisors and tell them that she is not representing her constituients, she is not a pilot, and she is not doing her job!
Sadly, it is not surprising to hear she ignored the mourning family wishing to speak with her. She has been ignoring us since she was hired, and her words mean little to us….SHAME ON YOU JACKIE!!!
My wife is a 911 dispatcher and gets calls from Center or citizens about possible missing/crashed aircraft frequently. As stated, these usually end up just being a case where the pilot forgot to close his flight plan or a citizen saw an airplane landing at a small airport and thought it crashed.
When my wife calls a small airport (they are all small around here) looking to see if an airplane is safely on the ground, before launching the Coast Guard or S.A.R Team, she uses a technique that I think the Control Centers should implement.
Rather than calling and asking the airport personnel if a red and white Cessna 182, N4832H is on the ground, she will tell them she is looking for a red/white Cessna 182 that may have just landed there. She will ask them to check the field and if they see it to please write down the tail number and tell her what it is. This insures a positive ID of an aircraft as the person looking does not know the tail number of the aircraft ahead of time.
This might be slightly difficult to do at large airports, but even then they could give the plane description and the first two characters in tail number and have the person on the ground give them the rest.
Shiela, if you do contact the FAA, perhaps you could relay this suggestion as I believe it would help eliminate something like this happening again.
Thank you to all who continue to comment and show their support. Being that I live in South FLorida it makes it that much more difficult. But, as I said, I am NOT going to let this go. Yes, I am due to give birth to a baby anyday, but I will be back. I appreciate all the information provided. Being that I flew into Arcata Airport when meeting with the Coast Guard, and seeing the size of Arcata Airport, one has to wonder how you could miss a plane being there? You could look out a window and see the entire landing area. Like Charles said if it was a United Flight with 30 people would Ms. Hulsey reacted differently? Ms. Hulsey, needs to realize the importance of ONE life is equal to that of 30! I will do my best, to ensure this does not happen to anyone else due to her negligence.
Regards,
Sheila Jenkins
Just adding my sincere thanks to all who are supporting the removal of Jackie Hulsey from her position as Airport Manager. As Sheila has said, we have family obligations right now but trust that we will be back. Every day, I wake up and it takes a few seconds to realize that I have to face another day without Rick. Some days it’s just going through the motions and not really living. It’s hard to get past the sick feeling in my stomach when I think that maybe, just maybe, he was somehow alive when the plane crashed…waiting for help…hoping to be found…and Jackie went back to sleep. I wonder how exactly does she sleep with the lives of two men (at least!) on her conscience. I know that some of you have also questioned the decisions of the pilot but the one thing I know is that Vlad did not make any decisions with malicious intent as his life was at risk as well. Jackie Hulsey, however, made a conscious and callous choice not to report the plane missing so that SHE would not be inconvenienced with additional work.
My daughter states that she is not a vindictive person…and that’s true…the same cannot be said for me. I lost my husband, my love, my best friend, the sharer of my dreams, my foundation, my better half, and someone needs to answer for that. Mr. Mattson, the Director of Public Works, says that the buck stops with him, as the airport is his jurisdiction…you are in my line of fire as well.
Some time ago I communicated with Jacque Hulsey regarding the operation and safety of our airports – Not Interested!
Some time ago I communicated with Supervisor Smith regarding the operation and safety of our airports – Not Interested!
Some time ago I communicated with the Humboldt County Grand Jury regarding the operation and safety of our airports – Not Interested!
Some time ago I communicated with the North Coast Journal, this publication, regarding the operation and safety of our airports – Not Interested!
Still have all the emails and letters to everybody. Imagine that!
Have to say everytime I fly into ACV for Skywest, I get a weird feeling/chill that Vladek is watching… Those that know me know I am not religious, but have to say I get that feeling every time I land, takeoff, and especially when I approach over the same flight path into runway 14 over Trinidad Point. He was a great friend and made times at Air Orlando fun with laughs and "Borat" quotes…. For those those that have never met Vladek, you missed a great person, pilot, and a friend.
Judi, please do not think that my statements regarding the pilot’s decisions that night were meant to assign any malice. The decision to fly up here at night, in a small aircraft, during a heavy storm, after so many hours in the air already, was not a wise one. Any experienced pilot, including his father, I am sure would agree.
Malicious? Of course not. It was two guys out for an adventure that unfortunately ended quite tragically.
As distasteful as I find Ms. Hulsey’s actions in all this, I would also not claim that her actions were callous or malicious. Perhaps her behavior after the incident by refusing to meet with your family and having her staff lie to you about her schedule. Yes, that was rather callous and malicious, but I certainly do not believe that she actually thought an aircraft had crashed in the ocean and she just didn’t want to be bothered by it. I think her actions that night were definitely incompetent, but not malicious.
I can not imagine the pain of losing the one you love in a manner such as this and you have my sincere sympathy.
In your effort to assign the blame for your husband’s death to someone, to make "someone answer for that", I hope you do not get blinded by your rage and place all of the blame on the shoulders of those that may not be deserving.
I can’t see any reason why the Airport Manager should keep their job after such an error. This kind of negligence implies that they were never suited for the job in the first place. To not relieve this employee of their duties is to send a message to everyone involved that such errors are "regrettable" but accepted.
If you make a mistake this big at work, you need to be let go. I’d like the Journal to look deeper into how she got this job and what her relationships are with the people who make decisions about her ongoing employment.
The treatment of the family when they visited in person is unfathomable. That behavior alone will get you fired at any competently-run organization.
I hope that the family is able to realize that Jackie wasn’t responsible for the crash of the airplane. Based on the comments from Sheila/Judi, it seems like they are trying to place 100% of the blame on Jackie. Jackie’s not responsible for the crash- the pilot was 100% at fault- Jackie is only responsible for the aftermath. There was a slim chance that those two men were still alive and while Jackie was obviously negligent in her duty to alert the proper authorities, you can’t blame her for them dying. I know that the family is looking for some solace, but truth of the matter is Jackie didn’t force them to fly on little sleep into a storm at an airport they’d never been to.
"I’d like the Journal to look deeper into how she got this job and what her relationships are with the people who make decisions about her ongoing employment."
Typical. Just because she hasn’t gotten fired yet you assume she’s sleeping with her supervisor.
Just to clarify a few things…no, I do not hold Jackie Hulsey responsible for the crash…only her actions afterward that took away any hope or chance that they may have survived the crash and could have been saved. I simply want her removed from her position, one that she clearly is not qualified for on so many levels.
Seeing as my last post was somewhat in defense of Ms. Hulsey, I wanted to do the same for Vladek.
Every pilot I know with some time under their belt can tell you of at least one time when they made a bad decision, did not properly deal with a cockpit distraction, misread a chart or made some other error that could have led to a very unwelcome outcome.
Vladek was simply the unlucky one who did not get a chance to turn his error into a learning experience and a good story to be told around the pilot lounge.
Unbelievable yet believable for the curtain. If it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the two survived landing in the ocean, then accessory after the fact charges for manslaughter should be levied…..maybe that emergency beacon in H center has more importance than first realized?
I have worked and lived in many countries and cities and I have once again been blind sided by the curtain culture: incompetent, ignorant, dumb stoner, lazy, back stabbing, thieving, double standard, corrupt, unpolitically correct, dead battery heads, got a job, too high on the food chain know it all professionals and sit on yo ass incompetence.
Gee Hank cant wait to fly back from KY to Arcata.
My oh my if ignorance is bliss why are there not mo happy folks behind the Curtain.
My book is in writing and this will be a new chapter in the book.
Redwood Curtain Culture shock has hit Hank in the face again and again and again…..and he thought living in a bamboo hut in the Peace Corps (eating puffer fish and fruit bat) was culture shock…
Ney…this one takes the cake even over and above
being tazered (for nothing),
Hanks 13 year old daughters uninvestigated gang rape (by CAST, the DA, the po po, and the Huboldt County Sherrifs dept (except God rest his soul Detective Ben Nord.)
and a neighbor who verbally wished death to Hank when stricken with illness and ultimate disability.
In God Hank Trusts, In the Curtain Hank does not and will never trust.
Yup, Hank threw stones in this blog and he dont give a hoot if the glass house recoils back.
God rest their souls. FINIS
There was no suggestion that she was sleeping with her supervisor.
Having worked in that airport for awhile now, I have discovered Jacquelyn Hulsey to be an uncaring two-faced liar.
She definitely needs to go. If it had been up to the people who work in the airport, there would have been a petition signed months ago and she would have been gone, which maybe would have prevented the deaths of these two men. Very Sad. If the County cares at all about its reputation in this community, it will make a change, but not fast enough. The way Miss Hulsey manages the airport, a monkey would be better able to handle it and with more style, savvy and personality.
ditto this:
I also find it absolutely disgusting that Ms. Hulsey refused to meet face to face with the relatives of the pilot and had her underlings tell obvious lies to help her avoid the family.
How can this airport manager still have her job, let me guess, she will get a pension too? This goes beyond looking bad to other parts of the country, this cost lives. How do we hold her, her boss and the county accountable?
I wonder if the County Supervisor is a pilot ?
A friend of mine who lives out of the area called me the other night to tell me about this tragedy. What does this say about our county personnel? Well, if you can’t figure it out, it isn’t good, County of Humboldt.
I made a point to see if this "manager" was still working at the airport, and lo and behold she is! How great for all of you who have to work with her. She is a real winner, isn’t she? Wake up, County! This area has always struggled economically and we certainly do not need this hanging over us. The County needs to replace this person ASAP to show that WE CARE. This is supposed to be a friendly, helpful community, and this does not bode well for Humboldt County. People will just travel elsewhere to see tall trees. Why risk your life flying into the Arcata Airport with the obvious incompetence and disregard for human life?
I am going to write a letter to my Congressman, and I suggest that everyone reading this do the same.
Happy Holidays to All!
Thank you to all for taking the time to comment on this article. This is my first Christmas without Dad. I am sure I don’t need to say anything else.
Please I plan to write letters to EVERYONE until SOMEONE listens. There will be change in 2010, to "RNL" you put it nicely to Humboldt County, whom would want to fly into such an unsafe airport? Anyone, with information that may be of assistance in my crusade, please do email me personally, to "tlcofflorida@aol.com" if everyone speaks, someone will have no choice but to listen. Again, thank you all and have a safe and happy holiday season.
Regards,
Sheila Jenkins
Rick Gustafsons Daughter
I whole-heartedly encourage your efforts to get Ms. Hulsey removed from her position.
As a pilot however, I am discouraged to read the misinformation suggesting that because of Ms. Hulsey’s incompetence, Arcata Airport is a dangerous airport to fly into. This is just not true.
Ms. Hulsey, and the rest of the on site County personnel have NOTHING to do with the safety of your flight. This is an uncontrolled airport, as is Crescent City, and it is the job of the pilot (and Seattle Center if you are flying IFR)to ensure a safe flight. The only thing that failed due to Ms. Hulsey was a search effort after a crash. This would not happen with a commercial flight as they are being monitored by their company and also have personnel on the ground that would alert authorities if the plane didn’t land.
Even the pilot has several options available to them to start a rescue on their own. The most common is to make a call to Seattle Center and inform them of your trouble and that you are going down. This will get rescue launched immediately. You can dial an emergency code into your transponder. Another option is to activate the onboard ELT. This is a simple toggle switch usually found on the panel of the aircraft. Again, this would have got a rescue launched right away.
So, why didn’t the pilot of this airplane do any of those things? Well, I firmly believe he had no idea he was in any trouble until he hit the water. The NTSB report shows a steady decent from over 4000 ft and he was below altitude for over nearly 10 minutes. It is my belief that an improperly set autopilot caused him to do a steady decent into the ocean without him realizing what was happening.
Again, I do indeed blame Ms. Hulsey for completely mishandling this situation, and I hope she is removed from her position, but it should in no way stop anyone from flying into our local airports. The flight is as safe as the pilot makes it.