Clovis girls, dad die in plane crash

Small plane piloted by the father goes down in northern Nevada.

Published online on Sunday, May. 24, 2009

Three Clovis girls flying to spend Memorial Day weekend with family were killed Friday evening when the private airplane piloted by their father crashed in northern Nevada.

Kaitlyn Elizabeth Hook, 15, Rachel Katherine Hook, 12, and Mackenzie Elena Hook, 9, were killed when the twin-engine Cessna 320 crashed near the Fallon Municipal Airport.

Their father, Naval Air Station Fallon Executive Officer Cmdr. Luther H. Hook III, 44, also was killed. He was the No. 2 officer at the air station.

Witnesses told authorities that the plane appeared to be in distress and was maneuvering erratically shortly before the crash. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

Family and friends gathered Saturday at the girls' home in Clovis, where they lived with their mother and stepfather. The girls routinely flew with their father to spend weekends with him, said stepfather Pat Doles.

Gina Gutierrez -- a friend of Brenda Hook, the girls' mother -- said Kaitlyn was "an amazing athlete" who loved soccer.

Kaitlyn, a Clovis High School freshman, was a good daughter, Gutierrez said. She would bring her mother coffee in the morning and pack her mother's lunch. Brenda Hook earned a law degree about two years ago from San Joaquin College of Law and is a child-custody attorney, Gutierrez said.

Rachel, the 12-year-old, wanted to be a singer and recently stood up at a baby shower and sang, Gutierrez said. The Clark Intermediate seventh-grader wanted to be on ''American Idol," she said.

Mackenzie, "the baby of the family," would have had a birthday in a few days, Gutierrez said. She was a fourth-grader at Clark Elementary School in Clovis.

Clovis Unified spokeswoman Kelly Avants said school psychologists will be notified so they can be prepared to respond to student needs at the girls' schools.

Brenda Hook has two grown daughters, Brenda Hook, 20, and Jocelyn Castillo, 25, who live near their mother.

Outside her mother's home Saturday, Castillo shared pictures of her sisters smiling and swinging baseball bats.

Details of the plane crash remain sketchy.

Zip Upham, a Fallon Naval Air Station spokesman, said the twin-engine Cessna 320 crashed and burst into flames Friday night about a mile from the runway at Fallon Municipal Airport, killing all four on board.

The National Weather Service said wind was gusting up to 40 mph at the time in the town about 60 miles east of Reno.

According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was manufactured in 1966 and had no reported problems.

Hook, a 1986 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, was a decorated pilot who amassed more than 2,700 flight hours in an F/A-18 Hornet, flying from the USS Kitty Hawk and other aircraft carriers.

As the No. 2 officer at Naval Air Station Fallon, Hook was responsible for "all the administrative, disciplinary and detail work that makes the base run," Upham said.

"The fact that it's Memorial Day weekend makes the loss of our executive officer even more poignant," Upham said.

"We're in a bit of shock," he said. "Commander Hook was very well-liked, and is going to be both missed and difficult to replace as executive officer of the air station."

Survivors include Hook's wife, Wende Hucke Hook, a Fallon native.

Funeral arrangements are pending.