‘Missing’ Pilot Arrives Home, Unaware There Was a Search for Him

A Newport Beach businessman, the subject of an intense two-day air search in California and Arizona, returned safely Sunday night to Meadowlark Airport, unaware that he had been reported missing on a flight from Huntington Beach to Phoenix.

The California Civil Air Patrol called off its search after pilot Lynn Martin, 38, landed at Meadowlark about 6:30 p.m., said Lt. Col. Edward Crankshaw, information officer for the patrol.

“He didn’t even know he was reported missing or that anyone was looking for him,” Crankshaw said.

Martin, an owner of the Mod Hatter chain of hair-styling salons in Southern California and Arizona, filed no flight plan when he took off from Meadowlark at midday Friday and headed for Phoenix by way of Corona, Palm Springs and Parker.

Crankshaw said a “close personal friend” of Martin’s living in Orange County reported him missing “when he didn’t arrive in Phoenix. . . . The person automatically assumed that he did not get there because of some misfortune.” He declined to reveal the identity of the friend.

Martin could not be reached for comment Sunday and it was uncertain whether authorities had questioned him about his flight or whereabouts during the weekend.

“Oh, there will be people questioning him all right,” Crankshaw said. “Everyone from the guy on the runway to the Air Force will want to know. Somebody’s bound to want to know where he was if he didn’t go to Phoenix, or at least he didn’t land there.”

25 Aircraft Involved

Crankshaw said he and the other searchers were grateful that Martin was alive.

“There were at least 85 people involved, 25 aircraft and a couple of dozen vehicles,” he said. “It did cost a lot of money in gas, oil and the expenditure of time, but it’s all worth it when you find him alive.

“It’s the old thing, if you’re handed a lemon, make lemonade. It was very worthwhile practice for the time when it’s for real. This was very realistic training,” he said.

“The initial cost is borne by us, the people in the Civil Air Patrol, but the gas and oil is reimbursed at the end of the mission by the government.”

One of Martin’s store managers, Sandy Hallenius, said Martin flew to Phoenix for business reasons.

Air traffic controllers in Palm Springs reported radio contact with Martin about 4:30 p.m. Friday. Martin radioed asking for a heading to Parker, received it, then flew on, a CAP spokesman said.

Martin’s former wife, Sonja Martin of La Habra Heights, had earlier expressed concern because Martin was flying an airplane he had only recently obtained--a four-seat, single-engine Piper Cherokee PA-24--which was different from the type he was accustomed to flying.

On Sunday, 25 CAP aircraft flew 30 search sorties from Palm Springs, and three CAP land rescue crews stood by to go to a crash site if one was found.