It was a mystery that left the parents of a missing plane passenger alternately fearful and hopeful.
Larry and Diane Hergott learned the body of their 32-year-old son, Zachary, was missing from the wreckage of a plane crash last week near Wray. By all accounts, he was supposed to have been on that plane, but conflicting information gave them some hope.
“I thought he might have survived,” Larry Hergott said.
In the weeks before the flight, Zach Hergott, a former high school All-America lacrosse player, had spoken excitedly to his parents about his future as an airline pilot once he went to graduate school.
The pilot/flight instructor told his parents the evening of Jan. 14 that he was going to take a flight with his friend Daniel Rojas at 6:30 a.m. the next day. The Hergotts never heard about the plane that crashed Thursday at 7:30 a.m. 4 miles short of the Wray Municipal Airport.
The next morning, on Friday, one of their son’s aviation students called them, concerned that Zach Hergott had been on a plane that had crashed near Wray; he hadn’t shown up for a scheduled flight lesson at Centennial Airport. The flight school Zach Hergott worked for called his family repeatedly, saying he missed other appointments.
Alarmed, Larry Hergott called airport and national crash authorities, who told him his son wasn’t one of the two men confirmed dead in the Thursday flight, Rojas and David Carey, 53, of Wray. As far as anyone knew, they were the only two on board.
The Hergotts were confused and distressed.
National Transportation Safety Board inspectors returned to the crash sight Saturday and discovered a wallet. It had belonged to Zach Hergott.
In the ashes of the wreckage of the 11-seat 690C Gulfstream turbo-prop, they found the remains of a third man they hadn’t seen before. NTSB authorities could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The Hergotts got the devastating call Saturday from officials. Larry Hergott said he doesn’t blame anyone for not finding his son’s body earlier.
He and his wife took comfort in the fact that their son had died happy, doing what he loved to do the most.
Larry Hergott said: “He had just blossomed the last couple of years.”
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
