‘He Said Not to Grieve Because He Loved Flying’

Patrick Dean Brinnon was trying to accumulate flight hours and get a pilot’s job in Eureka when his single-engine plane crashed in a Westside residential neighborhood, his mother said Thursday.

But flying was more than a career goal for the cable television director and editor, Dolores Brinnon said from her Northridge home.

“He had flying in his blood,” she said. “He always said if he went down in a plane not to grieve because he loved it.”

Her son had completed his commercial pilot and instrument training and 1,300 hours of flight time. He needed 200 more hours for his commercial credentials.

On Wednesday morning, the engine of the Piper Saratoga that Brinnon was piloting apparently failed shortly after takeoff from Santa Monica Airport. He crashed into a garage while trying to return to the airport, causing a fire that was extinguished within minutes.

Brinnon, 36, had moved to Northridge three years ago from the Northern California city of Eureka, where he had been working for a small cable television company. It was in Eureka that he discovered his love of flying and took his first lessons, his mother said.

“He decided to come back home, live with us and complete his credentials,” she said.

Brinnon hoped to eventually return to Eureka and work as a spotter for the state Department of Forestry.

The fatal crash was the third in five months involving planes taking off or landing at Santa Monica Airport, the nation’s busiest single-runway airport.

No one on the ground was injured in the crash.

Dolores Brinnon said her son’s ashes will be taken to Eureka and scattered into the Pacific Ocean.

Brinnon leaves a 2 1/2-year-old son, Cody Patrick Hocking, who lives with his mother in Redding, Calif.