Big Bear Trip Started Out as Celebration
They were the stars of the Coldwell Banker real estate branch in Anaheim Hills. The two sales representatives and their manager had helped push sales growth to a multimillion-dollar record at the fledgling branch.
With a pilot buddy, the three men set out Thursday to celebrate their success by flying up to Big Bear Lake for lunch amid the alpine splendor of the San Bernardino Mountains. But what was to be their day of triumph ended in catastrophe as their twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed a mile from the Big Bear City Airport, killing all four on impact.
Dead were Ted Tucker, 35, of Anaheim Hills, the Coldwell branch manager; his top two sales representatives, Robert C. Fenrich, 54, of Anaheim and Manard (Spoon) Witherspoon, 31, of Corona; and the pilot, Ted Raymond Hill, 51, of Buena Park, millionaire owner of a small chain of dance-wear shops and business agent for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11 in Los Angeles.
The cause of the crash at 1:32 p.m. Thursday is under investigation. But a National Transportation Safety Board investigator at the scene of the accident said Friday that it appeared that the plane may have crashed because the engine speed had slowed too much during final approach to the Big Bear airport. Witnesses told The Times they heard the engines slowing down as the plane approached the airfield.
NTSB investigator Don Llorente said the type of plane Hill was flying has a tendency to become difficult to control at low speeds. Llorente said the plane either dipped low, hit the top of some pine trees and then went down, or the pilot may have lost control, gone into a spin and crashed. He said an examination of the wreckage and surrounding tree trunks indicates that both propellers were still spinning on impact.
Too Early to Tell
Llorente said it was too early in the investigation to determine whether a mechanical malfunction or pilot error contributed to the accident. He noted that while Hill had extensive instructional experience as a private pilot, he had “minimal” experience flying without an instructor.
Llorente said he did not have records on the number of flight hours Hill had logged.
Hill’s family, however, said Friday that he was an experienced, capable pilot who took up flying about five years ago as a hobby, and had since spent much of his free time practicing and studying.
“He flew so often he didn’t tell us where he was going,” said his 23-year-old son, Brian. “He gloated about how good and safe a pilot he was. That’s the scary thing about it, to me. He was a very confident flier.”
Darryl Henry, Hill’s brother-in-law, said Hill had trained so much that he had earned an instrument rating. Henry said that Hill most recently had been studying for his commercial pilot license. That is the next step up from an instrument rating, which qualifies a pilot to fly by instruments.
When Hill purchased his Cessna eight months ago, his son said, the plane became his father’s pride and joy. On Friday, however, the plane’s disintegrated remains were strewn on the ground in a grove of 25-foot-tall pine trees, within view of Big Bear Lake and a row of two-story homes.
A plumber working on his home within 100 yards of the accident described the crash.
“You could hear the engine sputter. Then it just whacked (a tree), and the crack sounded like a lightning bolt,” said the plumber, who declined to give his name. “It was the most god-awful sound.”
The plane crashed nose down, disintegrating the passenger cabin but leaving the tail section relatively intact. The plane did not catch fire.
Families Mourn
As federal investigators examined the crash scene in the San Bernardino Mountains, friends, relatives and co-workers Friday mourned their loved ones.
“Everybody is just shocked to have something like this happen,” said Bob Swanson, Coldwell’s general sales manager for Southern California. “Right now, we’re just trying to keep everybody together.”
Tucker had been branch manager since the Coldwell office opened 18 months ago to serve the affluent Anaheim Hills market, Swanson said. Since that time, the Anaheim Hills branch, which specialized in homes selling for $350,000 and up, “had been doing especially well,” Swanson said.
Fenrich and Witherspoon, two of about 20 sales agents in the Anaheim Hills office, had been instrumental in the branch’s early success, racking up transactions of $2 million and $3 million, respectively, in recent months, said Mike Feeney, a former Coldwell salesman and close friend of Tucker.
The reason for Thursday’s planned celebration was that the two men--ranked in the top three in terms of branch sales--had just closed record deals for the branch, said David Rabe, a Coldwell real estate broker.
Just Closed Deal
Fenrich had just closed a nearly $3-million deal involving the sale of about 6 undeveloped acres, and Witherspoon had closed a $1-million deal involving a complicated residential tax exchange, Rabe said.
Tucker was in the habit of taking sales people out to lunch whenever they excelled, but Rabe said those lunches generally took place at nearby restaurants. Since Fenrich and Witherspoon had closed such large deals, Rabe said, Tucker called on his pilot friend, Hill, to make Thursday an extra-special occasion.
Although Hill did not work for the branch, the pilot was a familiar sight around the Coldwell Banker office on Santa Ana Canyon Road. Hill and Tucker had become close friends after Hill became a real estate client of Tucker’s a few years ago, friends said.
“They used to joke that they were father and son,” Rabe said.
Bob Hyde, a Coldwell sales representative who had known Hill for 25 years, said he did a double-take Thursday morning when he walked into the branch office and saw Hill seated at a desk, talking on a telephone. Hyde, who was new to that branch, said he had not seen Hill in six months and had not been aware of his association with Tucker.
“He just waved at me and said, ‘Hi Bob,’ ” Hyde said. “I said I didn’t know he was working here. He said he wasn’t--that everyone was going up for lunch at Big Bear.”
Couldn’t Tag Along
As Tucker and the others walked out to their car, Hyde said, Tucker turned to him and asked if he wanted to tag along. Hyde said he would have gone along had he not had a 1:30 p.m. business appointment in Santa Ana.
Associates said Tucker had been a boy wonder in the real estate industry. By age 23, he had earned his first million in real estate, Feeney said. But Tucker’s financial empire crumbled during the late 1970s and early 1980s, when soaring interest rates forced him to jettison many of his once-valuable properties, Feeney said.
By the time the dust settled, Tucker had lost about $500,000. He then took six months off before re-entering the business as a manager for real estate firms, Feeney said.
When he wasn’t working, Tucker was playing. He and friends would sail to Santa Catalina Island on his 40-foot yacht, which is berthed at Newport Harbor. They would also ski at local mountain resorts.
“He’s a person who really lived fast,” Feeney said. “His motto was, ‘Work hard and play hard.’ ”
Tucker had planned to marry in August and had just purchased a sprawling home for himself and his future bride on a cul-de-sac in Anaheim Hills, friends said. At the home Friday, fiancee Melinda Terral was too upset to make any comment.
Services for Tucker were scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday at an unspecified chapel in the city of Orange.
Friends of the other three men killed in the crash told of their considerable successes.
Fenrich, one of the oldest men in the office, was starting on his second career. After working for more than 20 years as a planning specialist for commercial airlines, Fenrich joined Coldwell in 1986 and in his first year received top sales honors from the company, Feeney said. He was married and had two adult sons.
Services for Fenrich are scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at a Lutheran church in Orange.
Witherspoon last year was named as one of the top three sales agents in the Anaheim Hills office and was headed for the same distinction this year.
“He had more going on now than ever,” Feeney said.
Witherspoon’s wife just gave birth to a daughter, Rabe said. The couple has one other baby girl, he said. His services are scheduled for Monday at 3:45 p.m. at Rose Hills Cemetery in Whittier.
Hill, an electrician, had been a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for 25 years, according to his brother-in-law, Henry. Hill’s first wife started a dance business, Henry said, and after she died of cancer he took it over and “did real well for himself.” Hill was president of the family-owned Hills Capezio Danceshop Inc., which has three stores in Orange County.
Hill, too, played hard when he was not working. He used to race motorcycles in the desert, his son said. He turned to flying planes when he got more money.
“The more money you get, the bigger toys you get,” the younger Hill said.
The elder Hill is also survived by a wife, daughter and five grandchildren. Services for Hill are scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana.
