NEWBURY PARK : Memorial Planned for Pilot Lost at Sea

A memorial service, complete with a flyover by a group of vintage planes, will be held today for a Newbury Park man who was lost at sea after his single-engine airplane crashed into the north Atlantic Ocean.

An air and sea search conducted last weekend about 250 miles southwest of Iceland found only an uninflated orange life raft from the plane occupied by Richard J. Brill, 51, of Newbury Park and Julian Mann, 64, of Century City.

Officials of Iceland have decided not to conduct an investigation, said Bill Crowell, spokesman for the American Embassy in Iceland. Federal Aviation Administration representatives said they would participate if requested, but they have not been contacted by the Icelandic government.

The two veteran pilots departed Van Nuys Airport on the morning of June 30 with the ultimate destiny of Prestwick, Scotland. They called their families every day as they hopscotched across the United States and Canada, but when no one heard from them for two days, Brill’s wife Chris said she became concerned.

“On Sunday morning, I started to get a funny feeling,” she said. “Julian’s daughter had called and said her family realized they hadn’t heard from their dad. I kept myself busy because I don’t like to worry, and then I got the call that their plane had crashed.”

At 8:25 p.m. July 7, a distress call was reported from the single-engine Cessna 182 R-G, Crowell said. A search was immediately launched by the Iceland Coast Guard and the Icelandic Defense Force, a U.S. military unit based at a NATO installation at Keflavik, Iceland.

“It was very windy and there were a lot of clouds,” Crowell said. “We believe the plane broke up when it hit the water and sank.”

Crowell said he is trying to locate two pilots whom Brill and Mann met in the airport at Goose Bay, Newfoundland. Shortly before taking off, the two Americans had told the two other pilots that that their plane had a faulty gyro compass.

Brill is also survived by two children, four stepchildren, his mother and stepfather. A memorial service for Brill is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.

The Condor Squadron, a fleet of World War II planes based at Van Nuys Airport, will fly over during the memorial service.