Lost In The Fog

John Popa, 37, was Sea Island's head pro, a man known for his genuine nature and organizational skills. Originally from Hubbard, Ohio, a small town in the northeast part of the state, Popa overcame tragedy when he was 10 years old and his father died from injuries sustained when a large truck hit his car. Popa had left Youngstown State and was an assistant pro in California in 1978 when he met Cheryl Wrede.

"I got there in September, but we didn't date until the following May," she recalls. "He wasn't very nice to me, and I thought he was a geek. One day we had a putting contest after work. By then I thought he was nice, and he liked me because I was a Lakers fan." Popa got a job offer to be an assistant at Sea Island, asked Cheryl to marry him and moved east. In the 1980s Sea Island was the hub for the Golf Digest Schools, and Popa frequently collaborated with the director, Andy Nusbaum. "We worked closely on developing a learning center at Sea Island," says Nusbaum, "He was just such an easygoing, good guy to work with, organized, [always] anticipating what would come next."

All in the family: Davis III (left) and Mark go about their lives with their father in mind.

Worthington was 39. He was born in Charlotte but grew up in northern Virginia. He had gone by "Chip" since he was old enough to make a paper airplane. His father, Frank S. Jr., had a plane and exposed Chip and his younger brother, Ed, to flying. "I never really got the bug, but Chip did," Ed says. "He loved to fly; it was his passion. He was meticulous about it." Worthington went to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., but his hopes of working for an airline were hampered by a glut of retired military pilots entering the workforce. "With Vietnam veterans who had 5,000 hours [flying time], they weren't even going to look at someone with 1,000 hours," Marilyn says. "He chose a different path."

He was a commercial instrument-rated pilot with about 1,600 hours of flying time on Nov. 13, 1988, when he flew from Brunswick airport to St. Simons airport in a Piper Cherokee Archer PA 28-181, registration N8342L. On radio transmissions, it was "Four Two Lima." It was a four-seat, single engine model with a low-wing configuration. Love and his colleagues had expected a bigger aircraft and were disappointed that a smaller plane had been dispatched. Love had flown with Worthington, and he expressed pleasure to see the pilot on the tarmac. But there wasn't room on the Piper for the pros' golf bags.

"When Davis got into the plane, he did something odd," Penta Love remembered in Davis III's 1997 memoir Every Shot I Take. "Although he had already kissed me goodbye, he came out of the plane, walked to the car and kissed me goodbye again."

The notion of taking the short flight hadn't made sense to Popa. "John, when he left the house that night, said, 'This is the craziest thing. I don't know why we're flying to Jacksonville,' " Cheryl says. "He was always kind of a nervous flier, when we'd go visit his mother in Ohio or go somewhere else. It's kind of creepy to look back now, but he was fearful of dying in a plane crash. When they left here, though, it was crystal-clear on St. Simons. I had friends who flew with [Worthington], and they said they would fly anywhere with him because he was such a careful guy, a careful pilot."

Worthington checked the weather before taking off in Brunswick; depending on exactly when he called flight service, he could have heard that Jacksonville weather was either five miles with haze or occasional visibility two miles with fog. He filed a VFR (visual flight rules) plan, and it was 8:23 p.m. when he left St. Simons Airport with Hodges in the seat next to him; Love and Popa were seated behind them. At 8:31:13, Worthington contacted JAX approach. At 8:31:48, controller Ronald Singletary responded, "We're landing on runway seven, the weather is sky partially obscured, visibility one mile, fog, wind calm, altimeter is three zero one eight."

Almost six minutes later, at 8:37:34, Singletary updated the weather with a broadcast to all aircraft: "Attention all aircraft; tower visibility one half mile."

Between 8:37:44 and 8:37:55 Singletary separately told three different aircraft visibility was one-quarter mile but did not provide this information to Four Two Lima. Less than a minute later, Worthington asked the controller, " ? uh can we get an IFR in there sir?" At 8:39:13, local controller Steven Stump told approach controller Singletary: "Yeah, I just want you to know, be ready for the missed approaches, it's getting real bad."

Singletary advised Worthington at 8:39:20, to "continue your present heading, you're cleared to JAX International via radar vectors, maintain two thousand, expect ILS [instrument landing system] approach [for runway] seven." At 8:48:24 Four Two Lima was cleared for the ILS approach to runway seven.

A special weather observation noting the existence of a measured broken ceiling at 100 feet with a visibility limited to 1/16th of a mile by fog was received in the tower over the JAX National Weather Service electrowriter at 8:51:00. The information was not given to the controllers.

At 8:51:56, Stump broadcast to Worthington: "Cherokee eight three four two lima, roger runway seven cleared to land, the uh visib-- ? er uh stand by, the RVR [runway visual range] is in update, however, it's been down around two thousand feet or so."

Stump informed Worthington at 8:52:08: "A couple of them have missed the approach and Ameri -- an er American jet landed, advised he broke out just about right at minimums." Worthington acknowledged the transmission when his plane was 1½ miles out at an altitude of about 800 feet. "OK four two lima, thank ya," Worthington said. Those were the last words heard from Four Two Lima.