Condolences blog
After 16 days in limbo, friends and relatives of Gary and Hannah Tillman finally got some answers; so finally, their official mourning could begin.
The identification Tuesday of two bodies found off the Vilano Beach, Fla., coast prompted arrangements for a Saturday memorial service for 47-year-old Tillman and his 16-year-old daughter. The service, at First Baptist Church of Rome, will begin at 1 p.m. with visitation from 2 to 4 p.m.
Upon hearing the results of a search that began when Tillman’s plane crashed en route to the Bahamas on Dec. 18, friends in Rome expressed sorrow coupled with relief upon knowledge of the Tillmans’ final resting place.
“It’s just easier than not knowing,” said Julia Douglas, Hannah’s friend and classmate at Darlington School.
Rome Mayor Ronnie Wallace, a longtime friend of Gary Tillman, agreed. “I think the family primarily, but also the community, needed to be able to find Gary and Hannah and bring them home,” Wallace said. “Now that that process is concluded, the healing can begin.”
Anna and Rachel
The whereabouts of the plane’s other two occupants, Hannah’s friends Anna Kipp, 16, and Rachel Hostetler, also 16, have been known since shortly after the crash.
Anna was pronounced dead on arrival at Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine. A memorial service was held for her Dec. 22 at Darlington’s Morris Chapel.
Rachel, who made it home safely, issued a statement with her family Tuesday after learning the Tillmans’ fate. “We want to again express our deepest sympathies for the Tillman and Kipp families,” the statement read. “It is certainly the answer to the prayers of our family and our community that Gary and Hannah have been found.”
The loss of the Tillmans will continue to be felt on many levels in the community, Wallace said.
Tillman was not only a good friend and running partner, Wallace continued, but he was also a successful local businessman, community volunteer, loving husband and devoted father.
Hannah, too, will be missed everywhere, according to friends. “She was a lot of fun, really friendly,” Julia said. “She had friends everywhere.”
Details surfacing
Although the circumstances of the Tillmans’ death are not all known, clues as to what happened — before and after — have begun to surface.
The initial discovery of the wreckage Monday morning is credited to Mallory Wilder, owner and captain of the Fernandina Beach-based shrimp boat Tremallee.
Tremallee, which is still marked with its previous name, Captain Jeffrey, had just begun dragging its nets Monday when they became hooked on a large object that pulled the boat around, according to Wilder.
To extricate themselves, Wilder said, he and his two-man crew began pulling the nets back on board. In doing so, they spotted a piece of an airplane nose cone approximately the size of a washtub cone in the net — and then saw a young woman’s body.
Divers sent to the scene found a Cessna airplane of the same type Tillman had been flying with a man’s body inside.
St. Augustine medical examiner Dr. Terrence Steiner, who used dental records to identify the bodies Tuesday, speculated on a cause of death. “Investigation and examination revealed that both were rendered unconscious upon impact and suffered saltwater drowning,” Steiner announced in a press release.
The investigation continues
The National Transportation Safety Board was also conducting an investigation Tuesday, with officials awaiting both for word from an insurance adjuster as to whether Tillman’s 1952 Cessna 195 will be removed from the ocean and for information from air traffic control officials.
That information, said Tim Monville, senior air safety investigator with the NTSB’s Southeast regional office, includes a recording of the communication between Tillman and air traffic controllers before the crash.
According to Sgt. Charles Mulligan of the St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office, the recording — which is currently in the custody of the Federal Aviation Administration — features Tillman complaining of engine trouble.
Specific contents cannot be published until the NTSB has reviewed them and gives FAA officials permission to release them publicly, said FAA Southern Region spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen — and that could take some time.
Although there is not a target completion date set for the NTSB investigation, Monville said, “typically, we shoot for around nine months after the accident.”
Meanwhile, officials are examining whether the Tremallee unlawfully entered a security zone established by the Coast Guard to protect the area they believed contained the Tillmans’ wreckage. If the boat is determined to have violated that area, it can be fined as much as $32,500, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer Bobby Nash.
Wilder said he was unaware such a zone existed, but Nash said the location of the zone had been broadcast every hour on a marine radio channel.
Either way, St. John’s County Sheriff David Shoar said he was “grateful” for the Tremallee having found the bodies. “We may not have been successful without them,” he said.
Gregory Richards of the Morris News Service contributed to this report.
