 1961 - 2013 (52 years)
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| Name |
Larry Eli Caison [1] |
| Birth |
30 Oct 1961 |
Eglin AFB, Okaloosa, Florida, USA  [1] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Residence |
1991 |
Rapid City, Pennington, South Dakota, USA [1] |
| Age: 30 |
| Death |
18 Dec 2013 |
Bay, Florida, USA |
- Lt. Col. Larry Eli Caison, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), 52, was killed in an aircraft crash in Bay County near Panama City, Fla., on Dec. 18, 2013. He was born at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., to Larry and Lorie Caison on Oct. 30, 1961.
Lt. Col. Caison was flying from West Palm Beach to Destin, Fla., to be with his family for Christmas. En route, the single engine plane he was piloting lost power and crashed one mile short of an emergency landing attempt at Sandy Creek air field.
He is preceded in death by his father, Larry Foard Caison, in 2009. He is survived by his mother, Lorie Caison of Destin; his sister, Lisa Branham of Chesapeake, Va.; former wife, Nancy Caison, and their daughter, Loren Caison, and son, Owen Caison of Shalimar, Fla.; his niece, Jessica Bullock of Newport News, Va.; and sons, Keaton Thomasson and Dillon Thomasson of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Lt. Col. Caison is a graduate of Kecoughtan High School in Hampton, Va., in 1979 and the Virginia Military In-stitute in 1983. Lt. Col. Caison retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2006 after 23 years of service. First he was a navi-gator and then convinced the Air Force to send him to pilot training. He piloted the B-1 bomber for the Strategic Air Command and C-130 Combat Talon for the Special Operations Command. His service included duty at McCord AFB in Tacoma, Wash.; Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan; Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City, S.D.; Hurlburt Field in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and the Pentagon.
Lt. Col. Caison was president of Grey Aviation, a company in Destin that he founded after retiring from the U.S. Air Force. Grey Aviation is a small company that provides airborne surveillance and special mission capability to U.S. and foreign military and other government agencies. He also founded and owned Grey Tactical Outfitters in Destin.
Lt. Col. Caison had many interests. He coached high school wrestling. He kept a healthy regimen of exercise with running and weight lifting the mainstays. He enjoyed riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle, traveling and a good cigar. He was a terrific pilot. Mostly he loved and enjoyed being with his family, who will miss him.
A memorial service will be held at Shalimar United Methodist Church, 1 Old Ferry Road, Shalimar, FL 32579, phone number, 850-651-0721 at 2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 27, 2013. The Rev. Dr. Larry Bryars will officiate.
In lieu of flowers, please make a gift to Wounded Warrior Project, 4899 Belfort Road, Suite 300, Jacksonville, FL 32256, phone 877-832 6997.
Expressions of sympathy may be viewed or submitted online at www.McLaughlinMortuary.com.
Published in Northwest Florida Daily News on Dec. 25, 2013
- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nwfdailynews/obituary.aspx?n=Larry-Caison&pid=168660877#sthash.zj8NZfAY.dpuf
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| Person ID |
I24014 |
tng Genealogy |
| Father |
Larry Foard Caison, b. 15 Sep 1936, Atkinson, Pender, North Carolina, USA d. 6 Dec 2009, Destin, Okaloosa, Florida, USA (Age 73 years) |
| Relationship |
natural |
| Mother |
Living |
| Relationship |
natural |
| Family ID |
F7984 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Event Map |
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 | Residence - Age: 30 - 1991 - Rapid City, Pennington, South Dakota, USA |
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 | Death - 18 Dec 2013 - Bay, Florida, USA |
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| Notes |
- By Zack McDonald / The News Herald
Published: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 at 19:11 PM.
CALLAWAY - Helicopters churned in a cloudless blue sky early Wednesday morning, scouring the deep woods of southeast Bay County for the wreckage of a Destin-bound plane.
By then, more than an hour had passed since Tyndall Air Force Base reported losing radio contact with a distressed pilot near the Sandy Creek area.
Larry Eli Caison, 52, was piloting a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza G36 from North Palm Beach County General Aviation to Destin Airport, but the plane began a sudden descent from 7,900 feet at 6:46 a.m. CST, according to North Florida Flight Center of Jacksonville reports.
VIDEO
With the plane traveling at 155 mph, Caison called in an engine-related problem and was diverted to Sandy Creek Airpark, officials said. The plane then dropped 800 feet in three minutes before communications ceased.
Caison was found dead on the scene, only about 50 yards from a grass clearing of the airpark’s paved landing strip, at 9:01 a.m. CST, according to Capt. Ricky Ramie with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
“He wasn’t that far from the strip,” Ramie said. “He had about 50 yards before he made the clearing where he could’ve landed. Now, that’s tragic.”
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will lead the investigation into the crash. NTSB reported 76 crashes of Beechcraft planes in Florida within the past decade. The crashes resulted in 36 fatalities.
Search
BCSO and the Callaway Fire Department had crews on the ground searching for the crash site by 7:23 a.m. CST. Neither flames nor smoke gave away the plane’s location deep in the woods. BCSO could not find the aircraft until a helicopter was directly above the wreckage, Ramie said.
The Sheriff’s Office and the county’s Emergency Operations Center cut a trail through the thick woods about 200 yards east of Sandy Creek Airpark with the help of a county bulldozer.
In 15 years of living in the neighborhood next to the airpark, Frank Carpenter could recall only one other time a pilot came in for an emergency landing at Sandy Creek. An aircraft Carpenter described as an “Air Force helicopter” completed a safe landing once upon a time.
A former commercial pilot and maintenance manager of Sandy Creek Airpark, Carpenter said the 20-mile circumference of timberlands surrounding the 4,000-foot-long and 60-foot-wide Sandy Creek landing strip obscures the roads, which rule out a lot of other landing options for distressed pilots. Other roads in the area are dirt or gravel.
“We’ve known people who get into trouble and look for an open field; you look for something,” Carpenter said. “As for options, where he was at doesn’t offer much.”
http://www.newsherald.com/news/crime-public-safety/investigation-continues-into-fatal-plane-crash-video-1.251439
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