Monterey County plane crash claims life of dive shop owner, 2 others

Pilot in Pacific Grove fatal crash remembered as good friend, lover of adventure

Friends praised the pilot of a twin-engine plane that plunged into Monterey Bay near Pacific Grove on Saturday killing James Vincent and two others.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Friends and family of a pilot who was among three victims killed in a plane crash off the Monterey County coast said he loved flying.

What they're saying:

"James was my next-door neighbor. We grew up running around the neighborhood. We were the Dennis and the Menace team. We caused all the problems in the neighborhood," said friend Joseph Bernier.

Bernier detailed how a boyhood bond with James Vincent from the age of seven solidified as life moved along, from snowboarding to boating, battling over a teenage crush, and culminating with both boys taking to scuba diving.

"I pushed him to learn how to dive. And then we both ended up working at the Aquarius Dive Shop together for about a year, and he pursued it further," Bernier said.

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Vincent was the owner of the Aquarius Dive Shop in Monterey. He eventually purchased a second dive shop in West San Jose, which generated enough income for him to buy his first plane.

Earlier this year, he upgraded from a single-engine plane to a twin-engine Beechcraft.

What we know:

Officials said Vincent was flying his plane from San Carlos to Monterey on Saturday night. Witnesses said they heard the craft flying low over Pacific Grove, and shortly thereafter, it crashed into the chilly waters.

Friends and workers at the Monterey shop used Vincent's boat to search for survivors, but there were none.

Officials said Sunday that Vincent, his brother-in-law Jamie Tabscott, and scuba maintenance man Steve Clatterbuck all died in the crash.

NTSB investigators were due to arrive at the crash site Monday.

"Investigators will begin by reconstructing those final minutes of flight, what the aircraft was doing, where it was, how fast it was going," said Captain Reyne O'Shaughnessy, a retired pilot with more than three decades of experience flying commercial aircraft who now works as an aviation expert.

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She said a phenomenon called the "black hole effect" could be a contributing factor to the crash.

"Without visual reference, that is no horizon or maybe very few lights, the eye and the brain misinterpret the depth and distance," she said.

While investigators try to piece together what went wrong, family and friends are left with their emotional black hole after a beloved scuba enthusiast and friend passed away well before his 40th birthday.

"Just all around a great person in the diving community. He was just the most bubbly, adventurous, caring person to be around. Anybody who met him wanted to be part of that," Bernier said.

The Monterey County medical examiner will conduct an autopsy before funeral plans can be made.

Tabscott was Vincent's brother-in-law and left behind a wife and two young children.