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.
Flying 200 ft. from the water? That would not take much inattention to get wet. Heart attack, stroke, sneezing fit, lots of organic and innocent possibilities, but I imagine the account books could tell much more... if there is anything to tell.
Alas, not I.
Sorry; no. Single pilot IFR is fine.
I see. Because you don't like it, no one should do it. Very Howard Dean of you. I and many friends have been doing single pilot IFR for decades. Still here. Get a life.
Oh no, you have all wrong. Fly early fly often. Single pilot IFR is legal, should be, and I occassionally do it.
Perhaps that makes me a hypocrite.
I look in my logbook, though, and I see dead people. People who instructed me, students of mine, and a designated examiner I flew with all came to a sudden stop flying.
Not all killed in single pilot IFR ops, truth be told, but in some kind of general aviation operation.
If you've been flying for any length of time, you see dead people in your logbook too.
Single pilot IFR is one of the sketchiest things we do.
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