Family of Missing Pilot Trusts His Survival Skills

Daniel Katz is no ordinary pilot. The family of the 24-year-old, whose plane was last seen on radar June 3, is counting on that.

Katz volunteered as a paratrooper with the Israeli armed forces and received extensive survival training, Joseph Weisenfeld, a family friend and attorney, said Thursday. With little else to hold on to, his family is clinging to the hope that his training has kept him alive.

“If he came down in this aircraft alive, he would have a much better chance of surviving and [still] being alive,” he said.

The plane’s last radar blip disappeared in the San Sevaine area, a rugged region of the San Gabriel Mountains covered in dense vegetation. His last known altitude was 2,900 feet, well below the height of several nearby peaks.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and the Civil Air Patrol have been searching for the Mexico City resident since June 8.

Though authorities don’t know how long they’ll keep up the intensive search, Katz’s survival skills are a factor in prolonging it, Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Tuttle said.

Katz went skydiving with friends at Perris Valley Airport on June 3, but overcast skies prevented them from completing their jumps. He then got into his rented single-engine Piper Archer 28 and took off for Brackett Field about 7 p.m. He never made it.

He was licensed for single-engine planes but was training for twin-engine craft. He had about 90 hours of flying time.

His mother and his grandfather, Marcos Katz, a Mexico City businessman, are in Rialto, where the search is headquartered.

Weisenfeld said Marcos Katz owns several manufacturing companies in Mexico.