johnmaio we have people in trucks, planes, boats and on foot looking for any signs down here in Mulege. and we will let you know if we find anything.johnmaio - 11-2-2006 at 08:44 PM
Bruce,
Thank you so much...can you think of any other places I can post or anything else I could do to be of assistance...Bedman - 11-2-2006 at 09:44 PM
Johnmaio,
My prayers for Gary and Peggy.
You might try David K's web site for a list of other Baja websites you can post inquireies.
Any of you math guys out there done any calculations to try and guess a distance that the plane could have traveled in x number of minutes. ??? Anyone
know the exact compass direction it was going???bajaguy - 11-3-2006 at 10:11 AM
I don't suppose.....did anyone contact US Border Patrol or US Customs for radar data, maybe Areostat information ....was US FAA or Mexican equivalent
contacted for any FAA type radar tapes available for viewing...would they know if the aircraft transponder (not the emergency beacon) was on and
working during flight, and where did it drop off???
Capt Mike...are you there....does this sound logical???johnmaio - 11-3-2006 at 10:22 AM
I will forward your information and suggestions...thanks...anyone else got any ideas?osoflojo - 11-3-2006 at 11:47 AM
Normally Aerostat info will not always penetrate that far south. Special Assets are necessary and not always in place. As far as Mexican authorities,
DGAC has been contacted and is on board.elchinero - 11-5-2006 at 07:20 AM
Confusing airplance departure info in this article .. for me, anyway. I thought the plane had left from Mulege's Serinadad strip on it's last
take-off? This article says La Paz airport. Maybe I missed something?
Tracy Press article content: "Toste said the plane, after taking off originally from the an airstrip near the Thomas’ vacation home in Mulege farther
north on the Baja Peninsula, had turned back in the face of a hurricane to return to La Paz, and not Cabo San Lucas, as reported earlier. Instead of
'remaining' at La Paz, however, the plane took off and headed north and has not been seen since."
Does anyone know for a fact what airstrip the plane was LAST at? While I feel like this may be like grasping at straws, sometimes the obvious eludes
us. Buena suerte, pilotos.capt. mike - 11-5-2006 at 04:33 PM
as usual the press screws up reporting facts - and with small planes they are notorious with getting things wrong.
They left Serenidad. refer to the BBP site for the best facts source.
baja flying is remote, the services you routinely reley on stateside do not exist in baja and much of mexico below 18,000 ft and when operating under
VFR.
you are on your own except when you can talk to other pilots in the air.
it remains a big adventure in the 21st century. that's why so many of us are hooked on it.
Its you, your equipment and your wits and talent against the odds. sometimes the odds win, and you lose.Summanus - 11-5-2006 at 08:06 PM
Thanks for that update, capt. mike...I will rely on BBP, the real pros with Baja experience.capt. mike - 11-7-2006 at 02:39 PM
latest search effort via the BBP -
"We are set regarding aircraft. We presently have about 12 aircraft (listed below) who indicate - 10/30/2006
November 8, 2006
We are set regarding aircraft. We presently have about 12 aircraft (listed below) who indicate they will be in Mulege Sunday evening to be part of
the search. The need we have now is for one helicopter to look at anything that is spotted.
If we need more fixed wing aircraft, I will do another alert:
Aircraft that will be assigned search grids and will be in Mulege on Sunday are:
We have several others that have indicated that whey will be in the area and will check in. I can be reached at either the Hotel Serenidad or on my
SatPhone via my office in Chandler.
God speed you guys, make it a safe week. good luck and hope something is found.
After two weeks of searching for former Tracy residents without luck, a new search will be underway.
08 November 2006
The search in Baja California for a missing plane carrying former Tracy residents Gary and Peggy Toste Thomas was suspended without any results over
the past weekend — two weeks after the plane disappeared.
A new search, however, is scheduled to begin Monday.
Jack McCormick, administrator of Baja Bush Pilots, informed members by e-mail Tuesday that no sign of the single-engine Bonanza, missing since Oct. 23
on a homeward flight during a hurricane, has been found.
He added that a new search will be launched next week and continue for five days, until Nov. 17.
Twelve private planes flown by members of the Baja Bush Pilots have been lined up for the new search, McCormick reported. A helicopter is also being
sought to search areas needing closer inspection.
The search will be centered over land, beaches and water of the Gulf of California north of Mulege on the Baja Peninsula, where the Thomases, former
Tracy residents now living in Escalon, originally took off during Hurricane Paul.
“This is a tough search because of the odds,” McCormick told fellow Baja Bush Pilots. “However, it must be done.”
A spokesman at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Rescue Coordination Center in Alameda reported that the center is providing support for communications and
coordination between U.S. and Mexican officials, but no U.S. Coast Guard aircraft have been involved in the search.
The Baja Bush Pilots had originally believed Coast Guard planes had joined the search.
Tracy resident Joe Toste, Peggy Thomas’ father, said the family is still holding out hope that something can be found, but each passing day diminishes
that hope. He said the family is helping defray hotel room, meal and fuel expenses of the bush pilots.
Toste added that several Tracy residents also are providing financial support for the search, including Eric and Buddy Hayes, Ron Yerian, Steve
Espinoza, Jeff Pelletier, Greg Stroup and the Albert Bogetti family.
SEARCH FOR PEGGY AND GARY!!!!!!!!
johnmaio - 11-8-2006 at 09:21 PM
The search area is n the Palo Verde area just north of Mulege. This is the area of the last transmission from the lost aircraft.
I have been asked by Peggy’s family to post on this board.
Currently Peggy and Gary Thomas's family is in Northern California, trying to coordinate search and rescue. We are very lucky to have Don and Jack
helping us in Mexico.
Searching for Peggy and Gary is obviously hard and takes resources, both money and volunteers.
If this is not done as a grass roots effort I am afraid we will loose them.
Please contact us if you are willing to help, have any suggestions, or if you can point us in the right direction. Your input no matter how
insignificant it may seem could be what saves them. Please get and stay involved and pass the word around to any and all that might be of any
assistance.
Here is contact information...please call at any time
Rod Toste
209 481 9386
Or you can simply post information on this board, which we will be monitored continually.
For those of you who know Gary and Peggy, you know they would be the first to get involved if the shoe was on the other foot. Please help us find our
family.
Thank you.
[Edited on 11-9-2006 by johnmaio]capt. mike - 11-9-2006 at 04:59 AM
12 planes begin another COORDINATED, ORGANIZED search starting this monday as BBP member planes arrive in Mulege Sunday.
Additionally 11 other different planes are headed to the Serenidad friday with the flying sams. They will all be looking if/as any of them pass the
areas Gary was thought to be navigating north.
Much of the north route has been canvassed pretty well by now though. If by chance they went down in a rugged area that is not easy to spot into from
the air, maybe hikers, 4 wheelers, racers, bikers etc. could eventually spot the wreckage (assuming).
At this juncture it makes some sense alternatively that they might have ditched either controlled or uncontrolled .Bruce R Leech - 11-9-2006 at 05:51 AM
for those of us using off rode vehicles to search her are some tips that I find useful.
1 when driving a off rode trail stop every so often at a god vantage point and use binoculars to do a search of the surrounding countryside.
2 Cary a GPS and map and mark off the areas you feel you have searched well. also if you find anything mark it with the GPS.
3 If you are in a grope use walkie talkers to communicate with others in your grope.
please add other suggestions to this list. I am new to search and rescue so I can use some pointers.capt. mike - 11-9-2006 at 08:51 AM
new details at BBP.
REWARD UPDATE INFORMATION FOR GARY AND PEGGY
johnmaio - 11-9-2006 at 09:30 AM
AT THIS TIME IT IS THOUGHT THAT OFFERING A REWARD WILL ONLY COMPLICATE THE SEARCH EFFORT COORDINATED BY THE BAJA BUSH PILOTS.
PLEASE STAY TUNED...IF THERE IS ANY UPDATED INFORMATION REGARDING THE SEARCH OR A REWARD IT WILL BE POSTED HERE.
TO GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PLEASE GO TO WWW.BAJABUSH.COM
REWARD UPDATE PLEASE READ
johnmaio - 11-9-2006 at 09:32 AM
AT THIS TIME IT IS THOUGHT THAT OFFERING A REWARD WILL ONLY COMPLICATE THE SEARCH EFFORT COORDINATED BY THE BAJA BUSH PILOTS.
PLEASE STAY TUNED...IF THERE IS ANY UPDATED INFORMATION REGARDING THE SEARCH OR A REWARD IT WILL BE POSTED HERE.
TO GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PLEASE GO TO WWW.BAJABUSH.COM
Mike / John
Bajalero - 11-9-2006 at 09:33 AM
A couple of things come into my mind that should be considered.
If they went down over water shortly after takeoff ,any floating debris could have been pushed into Conception bay by now and washed up on shore. Has
any one thought of organizing some beachcombing along the bays shore by truck or boat ?
Another thought is that the canyons just east of P.V. are fairly extensive . Many have near vertical structures and a thick cover of palo blanco that
could easily obscure any sighting from the air. If they went into one of these canyons , the best source for info would be the vaqueros that run the
cows around out there. Hiking or horseback or perhaps a helo are what it would take to discover anything in this area.
Also , some other questions.
Has anyone created some sort of time line on paper so possible distances traveled can be calculated?
Does anyone know How much fuel they had to start. Did they have so little they had to go to Loreto to fuel(unlikely but it happens)before continuing
north . Where was the last stop before Mulege. What went on there? Did they take on fuel?
Were they headed to Guerrero or San Felipe?
[Edited on 11-9-2006 by Bajalero]capt. mike - 11-9-2006 at 09:55 AM
thx Lero, most/all of the answers to your good Qs are on the BBP site.gtx510 - 11-17-2006 at 12:20 PM
I heard the news when we were at the Loreto airport. My heart goes out to their families.
If you guys goto Playa Armenta please look for clues regarding my father's murder. Things like tire tracks and perhaps footprints. Though I bet the
police ruined that evidence.QuePasaBaja - 11-20-2006 at 12:36 PM
Has anyone taken trafking dogs down?? Not sure how traveled the area is, but if they pick up a human scent, they can follow it for miles.
Any update about the search?Summanus - 11-20-2006 at 01:07 PM
Are the BBP still looking? Let's hope the plane went down inland and not at sea. Our prayers for the families waiting for word on their missing
loved ones.capt. mike - 11-20-2006 at 03:24 PM
search is over, they scoured the peninsula in a very organized fashion 2 weeks, 12 planes, 60 people. not a trace the assumption now they were over
water and went in the drink.
a statement is on the BBP.Summanus - 11-20-2006 at 06:28 PM
Hats off to the BBP. They are to be commended for performing a most thorough and difficult search.
Thanks Mike
Bajalero - 11-20-2006 at 07:18 PM
Appreciate you keeping us updated . I was really hoping for some sort of closure on this but it could end up being another one of bajas unsolved
mysteries until someone stumbles across something.
The people who make up the Baja Bush Pilots are to be commended for their unselfish contribution of time ,equipment , money and mostly compassion.
A two-week search of Baja California for a missing Tracy couple has ended without any sign of the downed plane.
Four weeks after a private plane carrying former Tracyites Gary and Peggy Toste Thomas disappeared in a storm over the Baja Peninsula of Mexico, a
search by volunteer pilots has come up empty, ending efforts to find the plane or its occupants.
Jack McCormick, administrator of Baja Bush Pilots, has reported that the final five-day search was officially called off Friday evening after the last
pilot returned to the Mulege, Mexico, airstrip without any sightings over land or water.
McCormick told Peggy Thomas’ father, Joe Toste of Tracy, that last week’s concentrated search by 12 aircraft covered nearly all the territory over a
140-mile stretch of land and the Gulf of California, from south of Mulege north past the Bay of Los Angeles, without finding any trace of the
single-engine Bonanza plane lost in a hurricane Oct. 23.
McCormick reported on the Baja Bush Pilots Web site:
“… Most troubling is that most of those who fly this route, including the Thomases, normally fly up and down the coast over water.”
McCormick told Toste that it could take up to a year for any debris from the plane to wash up on shore. One pilot in last week’s search reported
seeing something in the water of the gulf, but a helicopter pilot making a closer inspection determined it was a canvas sail.
“Sure, this is disappointing not to find anything,” Toste said. “But those Baja Bush Pilots did all they could in two concentrated searches, and we
are thankful for that.”
Toste said he was disappointed the American consulate in Tijuana couldn’t convince the Mexican government to request that U.S. Coast Guard aircraft
join the search.
Gary Thomas, 52, and his wife Peggy Toste Thomas, 45, moved from Tracy to Escalon several years ago. Peggy Thomas’ two children continue to live in
Escalon. Joseph Fagundes, 19, is a student at San Joaquin Delta College, and Samantha Fagundes, 16, attends St. Mary’s High School in Stockton.sanfelipebob - 11-22-2006 at 06:01 PM
Why wouldn't they give permission for Coast Guard assistance. That seems like a slap in the face !Bob H - 11-22-2006 at 06:33 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by capt. mike
search is over, they scoured the peninsula in a very organized fashion 2 weeks, 12 planes, 60 people. not a trace the assumption now they were over
water and went in the drink.
a statement is on the BBP.
Mike, we are very sorry to hear this about your dear friends/neighbors. Our thoughts go out to their family. The search efforts are to be commended.
What an outstanding group of people!
Bob and Audrey H
