Remains of 76-Year-Old Hollywood Pilot Found in Wreckage on Anacapa Island

John F. Thomson was to turn 77 years old this month, but even at his age, the Hollywood resident never gave any thought to giving up his favorite pastime: flying.

In fact, Thomson, a professional photographer, was in the process of upgrading his credentials to a commercial pilot’s license when the single-engine plane he was flying solo was reported missing earlier this month, his daughter recalled Monday.

“He thought it would be a kick,” Anita Thomson said. “And he wanted to become better qualified to do aerial photography.”

Thomson’s Cessna 172 was reported missing Jan. 5 after he failed to arrive at Santa Monica Airport from Watsonville during stormy weather. The wreckage was discovered late last week in a wildlife preserve on west Anacapa Island, and on Monday the Ventura County medical examiner confirmed that the lean, athletic septuagenarian had died in the accident.

“If you have to go I guess he was doing what he liked to do,” said E. Bruce Howell, an associate at Thomson’s Hollywood photo studio. “He wasn’t the kind of person who would want to end up in a rocking chair and be unable to carry his heavy photo equipment.”

Federal flying rules do not prohibit medically fit pilots from retaining their air licenses, regardless of age. According to other pilots at Santa Monica Airport, several contemporaries of Thomson still fly single-engine planes out of Santa Monica.

Thomson, who was flying home after visiting a friend in Northern California, had been a pilot for three decades and was no stranger to long, grueling flights, friends said.

Five years ago, he and his wife Jann, who died last year, flew a single-engine plane to Upstate New York with a second couple, Roger and Nancy Bowman. After leaving the Bowmans off--and going water skiing--Thomson proceeded to fly to Newfoundland.

“He loved to fly into remote areas--he kept in good shape,” said Bowman, president of the Air Spacers Flying Club, based at Santa Monica Airport.

Thomson, past president of the club, also had once flown to Alaska and crossed the Arctic Circle, friends said.

“It was real hard to think of him as elderly--he was old but he sure wasn’t elderly,” said Rol Murrow, president of the Santa Monica Airport Assn. “He was alert as most 20-year-olds, if not more so.”

Thomson, who operated American Photo on Melrose Avenue, was in a rented Air Spacers plane when he was reported missing.

An 11-day Civil Air Patrol search ensued, covering 13,650 square miles on several 300-mile trips between Watsonville and Santa Monica. But the searchers did not fly over Anacapa, which is well outside the normal route.

On Monday, federal authorities said they were still investigating and had no idea why Thomson crashed into Anacapa. Pilot friends of Thomson theorized that he may have flown along the California coast past Santa Barbara and because of foul weather did not see the steep cliffs of Anacapa, 15 miles offshore.

The plane’s wreckage was spotted last Thursday by a passing pilot, according to Cindy Nielson, a spokeswoman for Channel Islands National Park. Authorities are seeking to remove the wreckage by helicopter as quickly as possible because it is strewn in a remote nesting habitat for the endangered California brown pelican.

Thomson, born in New York City on Jan. 11, 1912, moved to Hollywood with his parents in 1919.

His father, Bing, was a stage and film director, and Thomson himself worked briefly as an actor, including a part in a silent movie version of Heidi, according to his family. The Hollywood High School graduate went on to work in a 20th Century Fox photography darkroom before eventually opening his own shop.

Thomson leaves two daughters, Anita, of Berkeley, and Sandy, of Hollywood, and a granddaughter, Pira Kelly, of Berkeley.

His ashes will be scattered at sea.