Private jet crash
claims 3 lives
Sun Valley couple,
Flying J founder killed Saturday
By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer
Looking forward to comfortable retirement
years as grandparents able to savor a more relaxed pace, Richard and Ilene
Germer, both 56, headed for their new Sun Valley "dream home" Saturday from Salt
Lake City, born on the wings of a private twin-engine jet piloted by Germer’s
close friend and former employer, Jay Call.
Behind Germer were dark days of battling
cancer, which apparently he’d licked after the surgery in Utah. Ahead were the
joys of entertaining friends and relishing the Idaho outdoors.
Richard
and Ilene Germer
But something catastrophic occurred to
Cessna Citation jet N70FJ only 15 minutes from a scheduled 2:30 Saturday
afternoon touchdown at Hailey’s Friedman Memorial Airport.
The jet with its lone pilot and two
passengers suddenly plunged from 16,500 feet to 9,000 feet in one minute before
vanishing from radar, according to a report from controllers at Mountain Home
Air Force Base given to Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling.
The sharp, rapid descent of some 7,000
feet per minute was far faster than recommended.
It would be 20 hours later--8 o’clock
Sunday morning--before an aerial search discovered why the jet had disappeared:
shattered wreckage was found scattered at a snow-covered crash site between
Carey and the Hailey airport, about a mile east of Little Wood Reservoir. All
abroad were killed.
In addition to accident investigators
rushed to the scene by the National Transportation Safety Board, the Idaho
Department of Environmental Quality sent a two-man team with anti-pollution
devices to prevent jet fuel from seeping into the reservoir.
Muddy roads in to the jet crash site
hampered progress of an Idaho Department of Environmental Quality team with
anti-pollution devices intended to prevent jet fuel from seeping into the Little
Wood Reservoir. Express photo by Willy Cook
Sheriff Femling, who was at the crash site
off and on for several days, said it appeared the jet slammed into a draw on the
backside of a small mountain then shattered into pieces as it continued up a
small ridge.
The pilot, Osborne Jay Call, 62, of
Brigham City, Utah, was founder of the popular nationwide Flying J chain of
roadside service plazas familiar to millions of motorists and professional truck
drivers in 42 states. Fly J also is the largest retailer of diesel fuel in the
United States.
Before retiring late last year, Germer had
been president of Flying J’s subsidiary, Big West Oil, a flourishing oil company
with numerous wells and a 25,000-barrel-a-day refinery in North Salt Lake City.
Ilene Germer for a number of years was
director of the Brigham City Pregnancy Care Center.
The Germers would’ve celebrated their 35th
wedding anniversary on April 13.
Call was an experienced pilot of some 40
years with a number of ratings, according to records supplied to the Mountain
Express by the Federal Aviation Administration. With an Airline Transport Pilot
rating and commercial license, Call was qualified to pilot single engine land
and sea planes as well as helicopters, and had a type rating as pilot-in-command
of the twinjet Cessna Citation 501.
The earliest of Cessna’s jet line first
flown more than 30 years ago, the Citation 501 was certified for operation with
a single pilot. It’s known for easy handling and a slow touchdown speed under
100 miles per hour, although it can cruise at more than 400 miles per hour.
Although NTSB investigators will require
months before rendering a verdict on the cause of the crash, one obvious area of
special concern will be bad weather, including heavy rain and snow, known to be
in the area at the time.
The Germer’s daughter-in-law, Jennifer,
said of the couple in a tribute, "They couldn’t get enough skiing, bike rides to
Grumpy’s and dinners" in the Wood River Valley’s many restaurants."
Memorial Services for the Germers will be
held Friday, March 21, at 11 a.m. in Ogden at Washington Heights Baptist Church.
There will be a Celebration of Life for
Buzz and Ilene Germer on Saturday, March 22, from 5:30 p.m.-8 p.m. at the Ogden
Marriott.
The family suggests memorial contributions
to Hunstman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, or the Pregnancy Care Center in
Brigham City, Utah.
They are survived by daughters Kimberly
and Kati of Sun Valley, their son, Kyle, and daughter-in-law, Jennifer, and
granddaughter, Hadley, of Salt Lake City.
Flying J’s president, Phil Adams, said
Call was "a unique type of individual and easy to work with." Call was always on
the move with new projects, Adams said from F lying J’s Ogden headquarters.
Call, who named the company Flying J after
his love of flying, leaves behind his wife, Tami, a son and a daughter.
(An obituary for Richard and Ilene Germer
appears on Page A24 of the March 19th printed edition of the Idaho Mountain
Express.)