CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER. COM
Alfred “Fred” Owen is photographed inside a Catalina PBY-5A aircraft called “Princess of the Stars”, which in Oahu in August to participate in the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. Owen one of the pilots.
Several members of the team of old aircraft that arrived in Hawaii to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II were lit with COVID-19, a pilot about 80 years later who died.
Alfred “Fred” Owen, pilot of one of the two PBY Catalina seaplanes that were sent to Oahu for occasions around the
On September 2, 1945, the anniversary of the end of the war, he succumbed to the virus after returning to the mainland, having been hospitalized, discharged and re-hospitalized, he said, dying on October 5.
The 80-year-old Washington state resident flew the Princess of the Stars with fellow pilot Peter Houghton to Hawaii dozens of times taking military, personalities and media from Honolulu Airport to Kaneohe Bay before a series of antennae. Birthday.
“It’s with the heavy center and shaky hands that I write this,” flying through the Sea Foundation, ready for the plane’s historic flights, said October 9 on Facebook.
“On the day of our departure from Hawaii, one of our teams tested positive for COVID-19 and was taken away to Hawaii until he was medically allowed home,” the message says. “On their return to the continent, three other members of our team tested positive. “
Owen, “father, brother, friend and mentor, ” said the base. ” He left a terrible void in our hearts, in the heart of his circle of relatives and in the heart of his circle of aviation relatives. “
Pilots Owen and Houghton, aircraft owner Coy Pfaff, and Owen’s son Jayson, who flew Catalina to Hawaii for the seventh fifth anniversary, tested positive for COVID-19 on September 5 and more than a week later, Tony said. Vericella, executive director of the VII World War II Commemoration Committee in Hawaii.
He said he found it unlikely that all cases would be from Hawaii.
In addition, a female public affairs officer who would possibly have been at Wheeler Army Airfield at the time of the anniversary occasions also tested positive, but the user had no official connection to the arrival of the historic aircraft there before and to air shows, Vericella. Said. .
No COVID-19 cases occurred with crews of 14 older aircraft being sent to the Navy amphibious attack they sent to the USS Essex for the event, he said.
CoVID-19 cases, and Owen’s death because of him, have recently been called to the attention of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Pfaff and Vericella showed effects for the virus.
Vericella said there is “no foolproof plan” to protect everyone from the new coronavirus for 75th anniversary events.
“So I think everything can be done, we did, ” he said. “It’s just, as we’ve told everyone from the beginning, there’s no 100 percent security, absolutely certain. “
The plan-making committee cleaned up again and again, even though everything came out of the air parades and attended the small commemoration of the fantasy of the battleship Missouri, site of Japan’s official surrender on September 2, 1945.
Approximately 46 World War II veterans and a similar number of members of the continental circle of family members were in a position to come, but on August 21, the planning committee took the difficult resolve to restrict rite participation to veterans living in Hawaii.
Some still criticize for keeping COVID-19 in progress.
Pfaff, the aircraft owner, tested negative for the virus and was quarantined for 14 days in San Diego before sailing with the Catalina in Essex, meaning he contracted COVID-19 in Hawaii.
All warbird crews, some of which arrived on flights, were tested before or after their arrival in Hawaii, Vericella said.
Before Pfaff could return with the plane on the shipment to San Diego, he tested positive and tested positive on September 5, Vericella said. However, Vericella said there was ambiguity when and where others hit the virus. .
Houghton came back negative the same day Pfaff did the test, Array Vericella said. Houghton left Hawaii on the 9th and took the test in Oregon the week of the 14th, he said.
“They didn’t give (positive) until 8 or nine days after (Pfaff),” Vericella said of the others. He added that “they may have given it to them on the continent; you may have been given it on the advertising flight home.
This rules out contracting the virus in Hawaii.
“It turns out that because of this time between “positive Pfaff and before the other tests, it’s “unlikely, I’d say,” Vericella said. Houghton did not comment and Jayson Owen, who is apparently still recovering, may not be reached.
Soaring through Sea Foundation said on Facebook on October 9th that two team members had recovered. Fred Owen, the deceased pilot, was a retired Delta pilot who in the past fought fires in the Pacific Northwest with Catalinas.
Before Pfaff’s circle of relatives bought the Catherine, Owen and Houghton traveled between France and France, where the plane was maintained before being transferred to
Oregon.
Soaring through the Sea said on Facebook that Owen was the guy “that we all try to be: loving, generous, honest, humble. “
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