Community Rallies to Help on Water and on Shore

When word went out that Alaska Airlines Flight 261 had crashed into waters off Ventura County, the community rallied. Local fishermen and boat owners took to the water to help search and rescue efforts. Business people and private residents offered aid and services to devastated families. And rescue personnel worked round the clock and volunteered for special assignments. Here are some of their stories:

When the first disaster calls went out, Ventura Harbor Patrol officers Bob Crane, Pat Hummer and Rick Hubbard had finished handling a series of distress calls earlier in the day prompted by high surf pummeling the coastline.

The officers had rescued a man whose small boat had flipped over. And late that afternoon they were braced in the event of emergencies prompted by rough seas just outside the harbor.

But the distress call that came in--one that Hummer and his co-workers would attend to for the next 16 hours--would not involve a boat, but a downed plane off the coast of Anacapa Island.

“We knew it was going to be bad,” said Hummer, 40. “We knew pretty quick that there might not be survivors, but we kept our ears open and our spotlights going in different directions.”

Normally, patrol officers are not supposed to motor farther than three miles from the harbor mouth in the event of a life-threatening incident. That is the Coast Guard’s turf.

But when news of the crash of Flight 261 reached Gary Jacobs, chairman of the port district board that oversees harbor operations, a decision was made to send a patrol boat to the scene.

“I thought the circumstances were so extreme that it felt appropriate to authorize them to go,” Jacobs said. “There is no question that we would have gone if they needed us.”

Without hesitation, Hubbard, Hummer and Crane jumped in a 28-foot patrol boat loaded with life vests, first aid and rescue gear and sped to the scene of the crash.

They immediately began to pull pieces of the splintered aircraft into their boat, while searching desperately for survivors.

The trio spent the night combing the black waters for a living passenger, a crew member or a pilot. But they found only remains and hunks of debris soaked in jet fuel.

“There were shoes, lots of shoes, plane parts and seat cushions, the Coast Guard wanted us to pick up anything and everything we found,” Hummer said. “We picked up everything that was floating.”

The decision to assist in the rescue was made at about 6:30 p.m., and the patrol officers were on the water by 8 p.m. They returned to port, which was supervised by a backup crew, at about 10:30 a.m.

Scott Miller, who heads operations for the harbor patrol, said the three officers worked longer than almost any rescuers out there--and left the next morning only when the patrol office ordered them back.

“They were very intent on doing their job,” Miller said. “Just talking to them today, I think they were glad they were given permission [to respond]. I’m extremely proud of the job those guys did.”

The trio got the rest of the day off.

*

Lt. Joyce Goulas was on her way home Monday, planning to spend the evening putting together a care package for her husband, who is deployed on a Navy ship.

But as soon as she got the call of a plane crash, Goulas headed back to the Port Hueneme Naval Construction Battalion Center and started organizing her troops.

As head of port operations, Goulas, 28, directs everything that comes in and out of the wharves on the Navy’s side of Port Hueneme.

Normally, that is limited to Navy vessels.

But this week, that included dozens of Coast Guard, Navy and fishing boats, which collected victims and debris from the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261. The boats brought in four bodies, as well as pieces of the fuselage, seat cushions and victims’ belongings.

Since the crash, Goulas has also helped coordinate the efforts of the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board, which have both set up shop at the Navy base.

She worked through the night Monday, going home only to take a shower and change clothes. Then Tuesday, she worked from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

“I don’t feel tired, no matter how many hours I’ve stayed up,” Goulas said. “I’m too charged up.”

But Goulas said the reality of what happened just miles away from the Navy base is starting to hit her.

“This has been a tragic experience,” she said. Capt. James McConnell, commanding officer of the Seabee base, praised Goulas for her hard work since the accident.

“She and her crew have really been great,” McConnell said.

Goulas enlisted in the Navy five years ago. Before being appointed head of port operations, she worked as the technical operations director on a ship. Now, she is in charge of more than two dozen sailors who work at the port daily.

“My job is easy,” she said. “The heroes are the junior sailors. They’re the ones doing the hard work; they’re the guys pulling everything off the boats.”

*

When Erik Burrow, general manager of the Country Inn in Ventura, heard about the disaster, his instinct was to organize.

He remembered the last major catastrophe to hit Ventura County--the 1994 Northridge earthquake. And he knew how to handle the chaos that was to come.

“Early on we knew someone in the hospitality industry would need to set up a clearinghouse for travelers so they could have one number to call and find a place to stay,” he said. “So we immediately sprung into action.”

Burrow worked round the clock, organizing a data sheet with the names of all area hotels and the number of rooms available.

He said if an agency, like the Red Cross or the Federal Aviation Administration, wanted a block of rooms, he wanted to be able to provide them, even if it wasn’t at his hotel. “We are the professionals here and we wanted to make it as easy as possible for them because we knew they had more important things to worry about.”

Burrow said all the hotels in the area worked together to make it as seamless as possible for travelers.

Burrow finally went home at 5 a.m., but got only a three-hour respite before he was back at work.

But he doesn’t take all the credit. The biggest trooper of all, he said, was his wife.

“We were already running on a small staff because it is the winter months, so I called my wife and said, ‘Honey I need help on the computers,’ ” he said.

His wife, a schoolteacher, spent the next 10 hours at the hotel, filling in where she was needed.

*

When Loren Dana, a squid fisherman from Ventura, heard a radio call that Alaska Airlines Flight 261 had gone down near Anacapa Island, he knew exactly what he had to do. Dana, 29, said he was prepared to give up a day’s catch if there was a possibility he could save a life.

He was alone on the west side of Santa Cruz Island late Monday afternoon when he got a call from a buddy that there had been a plane crash--and that boats with lights were needed to help in the search for survivors and debris.

Braving rough seas and 10- to 12-foot swells whipped up by an arctic storm, Dana powered his 37-foot fiberglass vessel, Talisman, to the crash site, arriving about 8 p.m.

He went to work right away; and for the rest of the night and into the next morning, Dana picked the ocean surface for debris.

“I retrieved lots of airplane fragments, personal items, purses and luggage, and I assisted in the retrieval of the remains,” Dana said.

Like other commercial fishermen who joined the recovery effort, Dana had great sympathy for the crash victims.

“I probably said a silent prayer.”

Unlike some of the others, he didn’t go back to port and try to recoup his losses by shuttling members of the media to the crash site--and charging high prices for it. Instead, he worked on his own, sacrificing the income from a night’s catch and handing off debris to the Coast Guard. All because it was the right thing to do.

Most disturbing, Dana said, was coming across a vacation photograph, presumably of one of the victims.

“Until I found that picture, I didn’t associate the crash with anybody.”

On Wednesday Dana was back out in the Pacific, this time doing what he does best--fishing.

Gorman is a Times staff writer and Blake is a Times Community News reporter. Times staff writer Tracy Wilson and Times Community News reporter Scott Steepleton also contributed to this story.