Family Refuses to Say ‘Die’ in Search

Last year a twin-engine plane with five people aboard disappeared on a flight between Bullhead City, Ariz., and Fullerton.

Three weeks of air searches by the Civil Air Patrol failed to produce a trace of the plane that was piloted by Richard Niemela, 37, of La Mirada and carried four passengers from Orange County.

Long after the organized searches stopped, family members of the missing continue to fly over the steep mountains and vast deserts looking for traces of the Cessna 336 Skymaster. On weekends they trek into the mountains by Jeep and truck, checking canyon after canyon.

“We have not given up,” said Norma Draeger, whose 33-year-old daughter, Kathy Bird, was a passenger in the plane. “We still have, how would you say it, Pollyanna thoughts that they were kidnaped and their plane was commandeered by drug smugglers or something like that, and they will be released and turn up alive.”

According to authorities, the plane left Bullhead City the afternoon of Nov. 14 just as a storm crossed the route that Niemela likely followed toward Orange County. In addition to Niemela and Bird, the plane carried Natalie Erickson, 19, of Placentia; Kathy Bird’s husband, Jeff, 32, of Fullerton, and Jeff’s brother, Brad Bird, 33, of Anaheim.

Civil Air Patrol planes scoured Southern California deserts and mountains for three weeks before the search was halted. But family members never stopped looking. They bought fuel for planes that were donated by friends. Despite the efforts, the whereabouts of the plane remains a mystery.

When the snow melts, the four families plan to continue the air and ground search. They are trying to find volunteer pilots and raise money to buy fuel for the search planes.

The pilot’s father, DaWayne Niemela, 55, a supermarket manager in Garden Grove, spends most of his free days aloft in an airplane searching for his son and his friends. He has bought thousands of dollars in aviation fuel as he crisscrosses much of the area between Bullhead City and Fullerton.

“I tend to think they may be in the mountains just below the tree line,” said Niemela, adding that the searches keep him busy. “I got to be doing something. If I let my mind wander, tears come to my eyes.”

Niemela said he believes that as long as the plane is missing there is still some hope that his son and passengers are still alive. “But realistically,” he added, “it does not look good.”

Pat Bird, the mother of Jeff and Brad, said she not only lost two of her children but two good friends. “I think it would be easier if we could find them. I hope and pray that they did not suffer.”

For some, it is hard to imagine that a plane can go down and not be found, said Bob Buhrle, 47, a veteran Civil Air Patrol searcher from Big Bear. But, he explained, there are areas in Southern California, particularly in rugged San Bernardino County, that planes are believed missing and have never been found.

Ironically, a plane lost for eight years was spotted in the desert about 30 miles west of Needles in San Bernardino County during the search for Richard Niemela’s plane. That aircraft was on a 1983 flight from the Grand Canyon to Fullerton when it went down. It carried three people--a businessman from Fullerton, his brother-in-law and nephew.

Buhrle, who is also a California Department of Forestry employee, has been going into steep mountainous terrain looking for the missing Cessna. He speculated that it could have hit a severe downdraft as it tried to cross a mountain ridge, possibly in bad weather, while the pilot was flying on instruments. He said it could be hidden under trees and now covered by recent snows.

“As long as the families keep looking for the plane, I will continue to help with the search,” Buhrle said.

Kathy and Jeff Bird’s two sons, Brett, 5, and Tyler, 7, initially stayed with their grandparents Pat and Joe Bird of Anaheim. Just recently, the two children have joined the family of Jeff’s oldest brother, Kevin, 36. He and his wife have two children ages 6 and 8.

“The children are pretty resilient,” Pat Bird said. “They seem to be doing quite well.”

The Bird children are undergoing counseling because of their parents’ disappearance. The oldest boy, according to Pat Bird, seems to have a good understanding about death and heaven. He drew pictures of his mother with a guardian angel and one featuring Jesus Christ with his hand extended toward his mother.

He recently wrote:

“When I was only seven,

My mother went to heaven.”