PARKER — As workers remove a plane's engine lodged into the side of a home and others sift through a field full of crash debris, the big question is how did this happen?
"He was a great guy and there are so few people like him," Todd Holmes said of victim Bob Marquis, 67.
Holmes is president of the Mesa County Search and Rescue Ground team. He says Marquis was a well-known veterinarian in the Grand Junction area.
Bob was a man who loved to tell a joke and offer time to volunteer.
"He was just the best person that you could have around," Holmes said while getting emotional. "He was just a really good guy."
Marquis was flying a Cirrus SR22 single-engine airplane.
Bob Stedman is the owner of Independence Aviation. He says the SR22 is a popular aircraft. It is equipped with a rocket-propelled parachute in case of emergency, which National Transportation Safety Board Investigator Jennifer Rodi says was not activated.
"I would say it's too early in the investigation to make a conclusion in that regard why the pilot chose not to deploy the ballistic recovery system or the CAPS parachute, but it was not deployed," Rodi said.
Stedman says Marquis was high enough and at the proper speed to use the parachute system.
"Why he didn't pull the parachute, we'll never know," Stedman said.
Upon listening to the radio traffic between the control tower and Marquis, Stedman says what he heard was troubling.
"He sounded disoriented, but the fact of the matter is you don't know why he was disoriented," Stedman said. "It's disturbing as to why he was changing direction and not following the controller's direction."
But, out of all of the questions, one thing is clear: Marquis will be missed.
"He loved everybody and he was just one of those special souls and we'll never be able to replace him," Holmes said.
