 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
'Please don't let me die'
By MATTHEW WAITE, Times Staff Writer
"Please don't let me die," he said to John Kozlowski, who saw the plane dip below the tree line while biking with his wife in the Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park just before 10:45 a.m. Thursday. John and Kathleen Kozlowski started riding their bicycles toward where they saw the plane go down and were met by another cyclist asking for someone with a cellular phone to call 911.
Marcus died on impact. Soon Grant, 52, of 22052 Carr Creek Drive in rural Brooksville, would be on a helicopter for Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. He was in critical condition Thursday night. "You just wished to hell you could do something," Kozlowski said of the moments between finding the wreck and paramedics arriving. About a month ago, Marcus, 37 of 13126 Hicks Road in Hudson, bought the two-seat ultralight after finding it in an aircraft trader magazine. An avid skydiver, Marcus went to North Florida to look at the plane and came back with it, friend Leo Dente said. Thursday was Marcus' first flight. "He was very happy about it," Dente said. Dente said he talked with Marcus on Wednesday night about the flight.
"He was very excited about (his first flight)," Dente said. "He liked skydiving and he liked flying." An easygoing and generous man, Marcus owned Marcus Transportation Co., a small trucking company in New Port Richey, Dente said. Grant family friend Bill Patty said Grant moved from Massachusetts to Florida about six years ago and earned his credentials as a flight instructor. He said Grant has always sought adventure, from riding motorcycles to taking cross-country camping trips, including the one the two men were planning to Texas before Thursday's accident. But flying appealed to him most. "For him, it's the freedom of it," he said. "It's probably a challenge for him. And he likes looking down on Florida." Patty said Thursday's accident came as a shock, especially with Grant's demeanor in the cockpit. "He's a real experienced guy," Patty said. "He's very knowledgeable about what he does and how he does it. He's very calm." On Monday morning, Marcus and Grant took off from the Tampa Bay Executive Airport. It was unclear how long they were up in the air, but they were a little more than 4 miles northeast of the airport when something happened. "I thought he was going to land somewhere, but where are you going to land out here?" Kozlowski said of watching the low-flying ultralight. The area of the park where the plane went down is more than 3 miles from the park entrance and nearly 2 miles down the bike path on the eastern side of the park. The plane came to rest on the south side of the bike path, with the wing still resting in the middle of the path. The path is about 12 feet wide; the gap in the wilderness made for the path about double that. According to the manufacturer of the SkyBoy, Interplane U.S.A., the plane has a wingspan of 34 feet. Ultralight planes aren't regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration like other small aircraft. Pilots aren't required to have a pilot's license, and ultralights are limited to certain size, speed, weight and fuel loads by the government. The FAA was notified of the crash Thursday morning, and the cause of the crash is still under investigation, sheriff's spokesman Jon Powers said. Anita Hoover, manager of the Tampa Bay Executive Airport, said Marcus' craft had been tied down there for about two weeks before Thursday's flight. "It's just a tragedy," she said. -- Times staff writer Brady Dennis contributed to this report.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
Marcus showed off the radio headsets he bought so pilot and passenger could talk to each other over the engine noise, Dente said. He also had navigation equipment and chart books to show.
