Clovis pilot whose plane vanished from radar was living his dream, friends say
As a kid, Pat Napolitano of Clovis had always dreamed of flying a Beechcraft Staggerwing aircraft. At 53, he had lived most of his life doing exactly that.
"Queenie," as his Beechcraft Model D aircraft was known, was his to fly.
Napolitano was flying Queenie home from Kansas on Friday when the plane suddenly vanished from air-traffic control radar over New Mexico.
According to Flight Aware, a website that tracks airplane paths in the United States, Napolitano's aircraft went down near Las Vegas, New Mexico, at 1:42 p.m. The last recorded takeoff had been from Perrytown, Texas, at 12:56 p.m., according to the tracking website.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Sunday that an aircraft went down Friday near Ribera, a small town west of Santa Fe, killing the pilot. He had not yet been identified. But Napolitano's friends said Monday they know it was him.
Napolitano was on his way to Chandler Executive Airport from Wichita, Kansas, where the plane that crashed was registered to a business. Morris Garcia, president of the Central Valley Aviation Association, said Queenie was owned by Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics in Wichita. Napolitano was a sales manager for the company, according to Garcia, and flew the airplane for the business to meet with customers. Calls to Mid-Continent's office Monday were not returned due to the Memorial Day holiday.
Garcia said Napolitano had a wife and a daughter, who live in Clovis. Garcia had known Napolitano for five years. Garcia has been flying airplanes for 63 years while Napolitano spent 33 years as a pilot, Garcia said.
Queenie, the single-engine plane with space for five built in the early 1940s, was flown by Napolitano about 20 to 30 weeks per year, according to information provided by Garcia. He remembered Monday that Napolitano would often send him images from his flights, like sunsets, mountains and restaurants where he ate during his stops.
"He was just a great guy," Garcia recalled. "Pat was a bigger-than-life type of fellow who would go the extra mile to help anyone."
There are few clues as to how or why Napolitano's aircraft went down. The National Transporatation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Association are believed to be investigating the accident.
Garcia said a review of the tracking data made it appear that Napolitano had a "controlled descent" from about 10,000 feet. Garcia said Napolitano was known for his cautious aviation habits and, as a board member of the aviation association in Fresno, he promoted those practices to local pilots.
This story was originally published May 28, 2018 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Clovis pilot whose plane vanished from radar was living his dream, friends say."