(NAN-AKL). It's surprising how much a musical selection can affect mourning. The captain was Gordon Vette, the first officer was Arthur Dovey, and the flight engineer was Gordon Brooks. He was a great guy, a really good fellow who is additionally an excellent pilot. Copyright 2020 Billy Walker | All rights reserved. After several hours of searching, the crew of the Air New Zealand flight located the lost Cessna and led it to Norfolk Island, where the plane landed safely. Obituary Joal E. Prochnow, age 78 years, of Beechwood was called home to be with the Lord on May 14, 2022 at his home surrounded by his loving family. Vette was able to use the setting sun to gain an approximate position of the Cessna. Please accept Echovita's sincere condolences. Among the flight crew, there is Captain Gordon Vette, First Officer Ross Mann and Captain Warren Banks (Kit Taylor) on the two-hour ride to Auckland. The incident was dramatised in the American 1993 made-for-TV movie Mercy Mission - the Rescue of Flight 771. The tall slender fellow isnt a Cutter, but hed likely wished he was! Plains Airways operated three CPTP schools in Cheyenne, Laramie and Ft. Morgan. THERESA A. PROCHNOW Nor It was during this time that young Bill was enrolled at New Mexico Military Academy in Roswell. There are two accurate details, however: the flights route was indeed a Nadi-Auckland run, and there were really 88 passengers. [6], Upon his return to ANZ in 1958, Vette served as first officer on a Douglas DC-6, simultaneously working towards his Flight Navigator Licence and Airline Transport Pilot Licence. I worked with Captain Jay Prochnow at good ol America West. Erebus directly in its path. Mary Prochnow (nee Lammers) peacefully passed away May 31, 2021, at the age of 72. [18], Though the truth of the Flight TE901 crash eventually won out, the cost to its defenders was high. It is with great sadness that we share the news of Marc Prochnow's unexpected passing. As shown during the taxi sequence, the aircraft was baptized Aotearoa, which is the Maori name of New Zealand and means land of the long white cloud. As American life returned to a state of normalcy after the end of the war, so did Cutter Flying Service. Im among many who miss this extraordinary fellow. If you have any information regarding this person, please call Maricopa County Indigent Decedent Services at 602-372-0535 . You can send your sympathy in the guestbook provided and share it with the family. In all the daylight sequences, the clouds seen from the inside the cockpit of the 767 are perfectly still. Capt. Bills son, Will, heads Cutter Aviations tri-state network now but Bill still plays a key counselor role in the development of civil aviation in all three states. This would place the Cessna at longitude of 173.6E , 291 nmi east of Norfolk (5.6x 60 nmi/deg xcos 30). Bill passed at his daughter Kays home December 11, 2018. Depends on continuous transmission on VHF otherwise a silence can be construed as loss of contact. He worked for Honda and BMW in his younger years.Marc's love and passion for motorcycles stayed with him from childhood throughout the rest of his life. Flight 308 is a Boeing 767-200 operated by Air New Zealand, flying a Nadi Auckland route. The difference between the times in GMT for sunset at the two observations was 22.5 minutes which corresponds to 5.6 longitude (a degree is equal to 4 minutes in time). They have also lived in Wisconsin Rapids, WI and Rudolph, WI. All I needed to do was post the picture shown above. Brooks knew that by dumping fuel they could produce a vapour trail. Some basic help and starters when you have to write a tribute to someone you love. But he pushes the glass and the needle spins to a new heading. Charles A. Lindberg visiting the Cutters Albuquerque Base. May God bless you and your family in this time of sorrow. Vette agreed to help in the search for the lost Cessna. In an interview some years after the accident, Vette described Collins as "one of the most cautious pilots in the world. Heres his amazing story and that of the very colorful Cutter Family who have done much to enrich aviation in America and, in particular, the southwest. Along with aircraft sales, Cutter became widely known for aircraft maintenance service supporting Beechcraft as well as many other General Aviation aircraft being built during this time, and continued to offer fuel service and operate on-demand air charter. He plans to either retire or BE retired, and have more time with his wife (Sarah Kemp). Back at home in San Francisco, Jay meets his wife Ellen (Rebecca Rigg), pregnant, and they make a lot of projects for the baby who spends his time resting or kicking! The long trip would be completed in four stages. He never spoke of his harrowing adventure to me. Jay Prochnow is still on the green side of the grass and so is my pal Larry Duthie after having been thought dead in the jungles of North Vietnam for four decades. The Cessna landed safely after being airborne 23hours and 5minutes arriving at close to midnight 8 hours beyond its 1600 ETA. Aviation makes the worldamazingly small. [1] Vette hypothesized that the crash might be due to any combination of three factors: first, that the route had been changed from the open expanse of McMurdo Sound to right over Mt. Gordon is a veteran and has been working for 33 years on Air New Zealand. I graduated harvard and went directly into the USAF where I learned to fly and then was assigned to Germany to train The New German Air force. [13], The initial Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) report on the accident prepared by Chief Inspector of Air Accidents Ron Chippindale and released on 30 May 1980 initially blamed the crash on pilot error,[14] but Vette challenged this finding. Vette concluded that his dump position was behind the Cessna as verified from his inertial navigation coordinates and an HF line of position. Rated G. Among the many comments made to this story, one (from Allen) stood out with its suggestion: As a double-check, Why didnt Gordon Vette and New Zealands Air Traffic Control ask several Amateur radio Operators in New Zealand and on Australias east coast who had directional (rotatable) antenna beams to get A compass fix on Jay prochnows HF transmissions to deduce his approximate position? Ladies or balloons or airplanes, he seems to stay surrounded! A great guy, good pilot. Jay Prochnow, a retired US Navy pilot, was delivering a Cessna 188 from the United States to Australia. With a failed ADF and an overdue ETA, he was deeply worried. Jay Prochnow, a retired US Navy pilot, was delivering a Cessna 188 from the United States to Australia. This is what the made-for-TV movie Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771, based on a true story, is all about. After the passage of the Air Commerce Act, legitimate aviation businesses started to take shape nationwide with official licensing to do business at an airport or operate aircraft. Cutter Aviation is a member of the Pinnacle Air Network, National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), and the National Air Transportation Association (NATA). Harold M. Burton Jr., 61, of Phoenix, AZ passed away on 02/27/2023. Norfolk Island and Prochnow were both instructed to note the time that the upper limb of the Sun sank below the horizon. The flights to Honolulu and Pago Pago are very smooth. 1904 Obituaries. in a small single place single engine aircraft. Magnificent! A year later, Cutter Aviation San Antonio, an aircraft maintenance and sales facility, opened in 1998 and the Dallas-Addison (ADS) and Colorado Springs (COS) locations opened in 2006. As neither Prochnow nor the crew of the DC-10 had any real idea of where the Cessna was, the crew had to devise creative ways to find it. Using the intersection of the perpendicular bisectors to the two chords flown within the VHF range circle, Capt. The new facility became the company headquarters for Cutter Aviation as well, though the Albuquerque location remained a full-service facility. Cessna Must Be West of the DC-10, Figure 24. Space limits including all the details of the crisis confronted by Prochnow and all the refinements employed in the search. Gordon Brooks was the flight engineer on Air New Zealand Flight 901 and was killed when the DC-10 crashed into Mount Erebus, Antarctica, on 28 November 1979. Figure 21. Prochnow had stretched the Cessnas twenty-two hours of fuel by 5 percent through cruise control. Sid, as with his brother,Bill, was a pioneer hot air balloonist who founded the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Cutter died May 21, 2011 in the New Mexico city after a long battle with stomach cancer, said organizers of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, now held every October. There aren't many! ABOVE: Jay as an America West Airlines Boeing 747 co-pilot. Vette recognized that the VHF communication link could be exploited to locate the Cessna. On the morning of 20 December, both pilots took off from Pago Pago. They're not a map to follow, but simply a description of what people commonly feel. It is one of the first 767-200s used by Air New Zealand. A former Air Force pilot, Cutter had not been schooled in ballooning when he accidentally went aloft in 1971 when a crew member released a tether. We are sad to announce that on February 15, 2023, Dean Prochnow of Hankinson, North Dakota passed away. David Kessler's top 4 tips for dealing with holiday grief. Chapel of the Hills . This was not the DC-10, it was an oil rig, and Prochnow went towards it. A poster was probably used. I almost said growing up with these marvelous airplanes. Looking for Robert Jerry online? At the same time, Cessna 771 is supposedly flying over Norfolk Island, at North of New Zealand. Gordon Vette in command of an Air New Zealand DC-10 (equipped with three inertial navigation systems), believed to be near the Cessna, was enlisted by Auckland ATC to help locate the lost Cessna. Obituary Index Search > ADJ 1982 Obituary Index; The Antigo Daily Journal 1982 Obituary Index Below Go To Other Indexed Obituary Years; . Harold, affectionately known as Proc, was born in Fredericksburg, Texas on February 20, 1929 to Otto and Sophie (Werner) Prochnow. [11] A fictionalized account of the event was made into a TV movie in 1993. Like me he had his parental influence. bishop vesey's grammar school fees. He will be deeply missed and forever in our hearts.. Captain Vette had dumped fuel when he thought he was within visual contact of the Cessna. [6][1], Vette left Air New Zealand as a result of their disapproval at his comments on the Mount Erebus Disaster. I am so sorry for your loss. His colleague crashed on take off, but was unharmed. The Cessna, however, was not immediately found. Search Glasgow obituaries and condolences, hosted by Echovita.com. The planes The Cessna was less than 150 nmi from Norfolk and was given a steering direction by Vette of 294 magnetic heading to Norfolk Island. There was only one aircraft in the vicinity, Air New Zealand Flight 103, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 travelling from Fiji to Auckland. [1] Mahon found Air New Zealand to be financially responsible, describing their attempts to shift the blame on to the late flight crew as "very clearly part of an attempt to conceal a series of disastrous administrative blunders". They will have to fly the leg by making stopovers at Honolulu, Pago Pago, Norfolk Island, and finally Sydney. No name in aviation is better known nor more respected in the American Southwest than Cutter. Yup Jay was a doer and it usually took a few bent elbows to drag personal anecdotes outta him! He was 86. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. The departure from Pago Pago is relatively accurate. After some confusion about the exact position of the Penrod, it was finally established that the estimates of the crew of the DC-10 were accurate. After flying on this new leg for a reasonable period, he turned 90 degrees left for a short period followed by another 90 degree turn to the left and at point 3 he regained VHF contact with the Cessna (as he marked his map). [6] In 1984, Mahon wrote a book about the events of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the crash titled Verdict on Erebus. If you have other URLs to add to this list, or to report a dead link, please contact us. This was identified as Penrod, which was being towed from New Zealand to Singapore. This can be noticed as the plane taxies to the runway before it becomes a 737-200. Air New Zealand Flight 308 is a Boeing 767-200 in all sequences (mostly stock footage from ANZ), except on take-off when it becomes a Boeing 737-200, and at the Auckland Airport apron, where it is a Boeing 737-300/400 of Australian Airlines. He will be deeply missed and forever in our hearts.Marc was preceded in death by his mother Betty Lou Prochnow and his nephew Jay Prochnow. In addition to basic flight training, many pilots were trained for glider operations, and the U.S. Navy designated Cutter as a Naval Air Training School as part of the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) at its primary business location at West Mesa Airport in Albuquerque. We are sad to announce that on September 1, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Christine Prochnow (Roselle, Illinois). Prochnow landed and set out the following day to Norfolk Island. Next Vette instructed Prochnow to determine the elevation angle of the Sun above the horizon using his partially outstretched arm and fingers as a sextant. Vette recognized that one can determine the difference of longitude between Norfolk Island and the Cessna by noting the GMT of sunset at the two locations. Meanwhile, Jay and Frank are called by Harry Hanson (Robert Benedetti), their supervisor, for a very special flight. Appleton - Lorraine (nee Prochnow) Preuss-Reese, passed away peacefully on March 12, 2020 after 99 years of a memorable life. [22][23] The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) used Vette's report as an example of how a combination of organizational failures could cause an accident, calling it "10 years ahead of its time" and adding that if its lessons had been heeded, "Chernobyl, Bhopal, Clapham Junction, Kings Cross and certainly the Dryden Report would not have existed". Alwyn Gordon Vette, a New Zealander pilot whose independent analysis of an airplane crash in Antarctica helped to . He will be deeply missed and forever in our hearts. Lorraine was born on January 26, 1921, daughter of the late William and Lena (Lutzke) Prochnow, in Valders, WI. He continued searching; after locating more homing beacons from other islands, he realized his ADF (automatic direction finder) had malfunctioned and he was now lost somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. As I write this, Bill, Harry Amster, and I are planning another great flight to the Round Engine Round Up (RERU) held annually in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It is an excellent movie to watch with the family, and will keep you restless at key moments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4_f3T8AzJo&t=174s. "[7] In fact, it was soon discovered that the airline changed Flight 901's route, after the flight briefing without informing Collins, putting Mt. [6], In recognition of Vette's efforts, the New Zealand Air Line Pilots' Association (NZALPA) awarded him an honorary lifetime membership in 1984 and the first Jim Collins Memorial Award for Exceptional Contribution to Flight Safety award in 1991. A movie was made of his flight delivering a Cessna model 188 AG Wagon. Had the producers and director availed themselves to technical advisors it could have been a really WOW movie. As the search was getting more and more desperate, they decided to try it. Giving to charity is a meaningful way to honor someone who has died. [17], Vette's findings on the crash of Flight TE901 were highly influential in advancing air safety and accident prevention in general. In addition, Cutter Flying Service offered aircraft sales, line and fuel services to transient pilots as a Phillips 66 Aviation fuel dealer beginning in 1938, and aircraft maintenance to support the growing number of aircraft in the Southwest. Alwyn Gordon Vette ONZM (9 July 1933 9 August 2015) was a New Zealand airline captain best known for his involvement in the Cessna 188 Pacific rescue and his research into the cause of the Air New Zealand Flight TE901 crash. Aural boxing. Obituary of James M. Koch James M. Koch, 85, Winter Haven, passed Wed. Jan. 18th. Your email address will not be published. He believes that the Cessnas opaque canopy prevented Prochnow from sighting the DC-10. The company also built two of the worlds largest thermal airships, according to the balloon museum. He was born in Marion on May 9, 1988, to Theodore Prochnow and Kimberley (Thomasson) Prochnow. When Prochnow arrived at the region where he believed Norfolk Island was, he was unable to see the island. It has been introduced in Australia and New Zealand under the name The Flight from Hell. Additionally, the hangar where Vette challenges one of his supervisors, in one of the first scenes, hosts a couple of Australian Airlines aircraft, minus titles. You guessed it, they got fired! He was born February 6, 1956 in Hutchinson, Minnesota. The take-off cockpit sequence was done (obviously) in a flight simulator. She was born on November 7, 1961, in San Antonio, Texas to Randolph Ben Prochnow and Violet Rose (Jaschke) Prochnow. Pour out your heart to him because he cares for you . While trying to explain the appeal of an antique form of aviation, Cutter once told The Times: Its like floating through the air on a magic carpet ride.. MM was into hot air ballooning. Imagine flying for more than 14 hours non-stop over the Pacific Ocean. Frank disagrees and convinces Jay to fly lonely to earn the money for the baby. Their stories are within this site along with a coupladozen others. The flight had 88 passengers on board. I miss him being with our Cactus Crews (retired America West flight crews). Ive added your comments at the end of Jays story. He was a huge Warriors and Giants fan and enjoyed watching many games. [15] As he later described it, "I was taken for a flight myself in white out conditions and saw with my own eyes the flat terrain of ice and snow stretching forth for more than forty miles when in fact right in front of us there was a snow ridge several hundred feet high". .Good to know that you, too, survived Manzano Day School in Albuquerque. Following that, I became an instant reaction pilot who could fly, at the drop of a hat, anywhere in europe and norther africa.. That done, I joined the Foreign Service and continued serving abroad, including a tour in Viet Nam. His grandfather, Richard C. Dillon, was New Mexicos governor from 1927 to 1931. That his dump position was behind the Cessna landed safely after being airborne 23hours and 5minutes arriving close... 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