http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1533254/posts
Triangle of death: Philanthropist island crash fourth this year
Boston Herald ^ | December 3, 2005 | Casey Ross
Posted on 12/03/2005 5:00:37 AM PST by billorites
A prominent New York philanthropist whose family built the Harvard School of Business is presumed dead in frigid waters off Nantucket after his private plane disappeared from radar and was not found during a frantic 19-hour search, authorities said.
George Baker III, 66, was flying to meet his wife at their Nantucket home Thursday evening when air traffic controllers lost contact with his plane about 2 1/2 miles from the island’s landing strip.
Baker is the latest victim of several mysterious crashes in and around Cape Cod and the Islands in recent years. Three other small planes have crashed in the region this year alone.
U.S. Coast Guard officials called off their search for Baker about 1:10 p.m. yesterday after finding no sign of him or his plane.
Baker “was a remarkable man and this is a great tragedy,” said Donella Rapier, vice president of alumni affairs and development for Harvard University. “He was very generous with his time and his advice. This is very sad news.”
Nantucket police found a First Aid kit, a bottle of aviation lubricant and a couple pieces of plastic near Nobadeer Beach, but no other debris was immediately discovered. Police planned to resume their search today.
Baker, whose great-grandfather donated $5 million to help build the Harvard School of Business in 1924, was retired from a New York investment firm he co-founded and was working as senior trustee for the George F. Baker Trust.
Baker’s family was gathered at their Nantucket home yesterday while Coast Guard officials continued a fruitless search off the island’s southern coast. A man who identified himself as Baker’s son said the family did not wish to comment.
A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said Baker, who had nearly 40 years experience as a pilot, was flying at 200 feet about 2miles from the airport when contact with his airplane was lost. There were no severe weather problems reported in the area and Baker never indicated he was in distress.
News of Baker’s apparent death yesterday devastated friends and academic associates at Harvard University, where a library and the the graduate school of business administration are named after his great-grandfather, who founded the First National Bank of New York that would become a cornerstone of Citibank.
“He was a very generous donor and a good friend of the business school and of the last three deans,” Harvard spokesman Jim Aisner said.
Iran, on defiant course, tunes up military
Sat. 3 Dec 2005
Tehran, Iran, Dec. 03 – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered a major reshuffle of the top brass of the armed forces as part of a larger plan to enhance the military’s control over the government, Iran Focus has learnt.
In recent weeks, hundreds of senior officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have been seconded to government ministries and state institutions to “prop up” the country’s civil administration for what many within the clerical government believe will be a very tough year ahead for the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Iran Focus revealed last week that three in four of the new senior political appointees by hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad come from the Revolutionary Guards, including 11 of his ministers and several new governors.
As part of the new changes, Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi will soon leave his command of the para-military Bassij and move to the more senior position of Chairman of the IRGC’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to informed sources in Tehran.
Hejazi is a close ally of President Ahmadinejad, who has himself been a top commander in the IRGC.
The decision to give Hejazi the top job comes after IRGC Deputy Commandant Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr was appointed as the Deputy Interior Minister. Zolqadr will coordinate the motley internal security organisations of the Islamic fundamentalist state.
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4690