Prominent area couple perished in plane crash

12/25/05

By THOMAS SCHULTZ

Ed and Sandy Mack flying to Bay Area for family visit

NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

A prominent couple who left Santa Barbara to visit children and grandchildren in the Bay Area for Christmas died Friday when the small airplane carrying them north crashed near Livermore.

The accomplishments of Ed and Sandy Mack were remembered Saturday by family, friends and business associates, who recalled two people engaged extensively in civic life as they prepared to build a dream home in Oregon.

Mr. Mack, 63, worked independently in finance following a career in banking and investment brokering. He served on various boards and commissions, including the appointed Santa Barbara Airport Commission, and rarely missed a weekend round of golf with his buddies at La Cumbre Country Club.

Mrs. Mack, said to be in her mid- to late 50s, taught arts and crafts classes at their Sierra Madre Road home above the Goleta Valley.

"The one thing we take peace in knowing is they died doing the thing they loved, visiting the people they loved," said son David Mack, 36, a resident of San Francisco.

The single-engine plane the couple of three decades co-owned with Santa Barbara City Councilman Dan Secord and a third partner was en route to Livermore Municipal Airport when air traffic control officials lost contact at about 3:20 p.m., officials said.

Mr. Mack, a pilot since young adulthood, attempted an instrument landing in heavy fog when the 1968 Beechcraft 36 disappeared from radar screens and immediately transmitted an emergency signal, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, had not issued an official cause Saturday.

As news of the crash spread, friends reacted with shock and sadness.

Next-door neighbor Carol Weston recalled wishing the Macks well as they left Friday for the airport.

"She had come up to me and gave me an extra long hug and said, 'I love you,'Ê" Ms. Weston said. "This was somehow an extra big hug. She held me for a long time.

"He loved his plane," Ms. Weston continued. "He could hardly wait to get up there to see his grandkids. He loved those grandkids dearly. I'm still in shock."

Donald Fones, a high school friend of Mr. Mack, told TV reporter Marianne Favro at the site of the crash that his lost comrade was the salt of the earth, adding, "I miss him already."

Dr. Secord, a member of the California Coastal Commission who used the plane frequently to attend meetings around the state, said he and Mr. Mack shared the craft for 15 years or so. The plane was registered to Medic Air, which Dr. Secord described as the name of the partnership.

"We rarely saw each other," Dr. Secord said, describing a mostly business relationship. Mr. Mack kept the books. "It's just a shock. If the fog up there was like the fog down here, that's an unusual situation.

"Ed Mack was a careful, well-trained pilot who had recurrent training and would be expected to do all the right things at the right time," Dr. Secord said. "I am interested in knowing what the radar tracks show. There's going to be a bunch of discussions about this. I'm sorry it happened."

David Mack said he and his sister, Jamie Wurts, were born to Mr. Mack's first wife. After divorcing in the 1970s, both parents remarried but remained close friends. "They all got along well," David Mack said, describing holidays spent together.

This year, Ed and Sandy Mack planned to stay in San Ramon with Ms. Wurts, 41, her husband and their children, Matthew, 5, and John, 11.

Born in Hawaii to a military family that survived the attack on Pearl Harbor when his mother was seven months pregnant, Mr. Mack lived in several states, including Michigan, Florida and Texas, as a child.

His career in finance began in 1963, and he made headlines in 1977 when he left a job running a bank in Houston and moved to Santa Barbara to become the founding president of City Commerce Bank the next year.

"Santa Barbara really wasn't the attraction," Mr. Mack said in 1986. "The attraction was starting a new bank in a community purported to be a no-growth community. It was an exciting opportunity."

More headlines followed in 1990, when Mr. Mack quit that job over differences with the City Commerce board of directors. From there, he worked as a Merrill Lynch broker helping, among other duties, small businesses and managers of bank and thrift investment portfolios.

Mr. Mack recently retired from that position, and intended to continue working in finance in private practice.

"He loved the people side of the business, the relationships that he had maintained," David Mack said. "Even I don't have a full grasp of all that he had accomplished. What was important to him was being able to give back his time and energy to the community, because he loved Santa Barbara so much. He loved Santa Barbara dearly, and all the people he met over the years."

Searchers said it took three hours to reach the rural crash site, arriving at the rolling Altamont Pass location after dark.

A large response launched initially was scaled back because the crash was so remote, Alameda County Assistant Fire Chief John Walsh told the News-Press, adding that a rancher on an all-terrain vehicle located the fuselage.

"The visibility was really poor, a heavy ground fog," he said. "The plane was near the top of a ridge and it looked like it just took a glancing blow on the hillside. Last night, we just secured the scene. It was just a very unfortunate event."

David Mack said he did not wish to discuss details of the crash, and that he hoped the community wouldn't focus on them.

"It's more important who they (his parents) are and what they've done and accomplished," he said. "It's really important to me that it comes across in a very positive light. That's how they'd want to be remembered."

Initial services will be private, with a public memorial to be held in the next few weeks.