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Coast Guard Suspends Gulf Search For 2 Fliers

Photos from MySpace and Debbie Swartz

Zachary Schlitt and Darien Peckham were on the plane that crashed Sunday, the Coast Guard says.

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 2, 2008

Updated: 12/02/2008 06:36 pm

The Coast Guard has called off its search for two pilots whose plane went missing Sunday as it flew over the Gulf of Mexico.

Coast Guard officials say the search for Darien Peckham of Tampa and Zachary Schlitt of West Palm Beach was suspended at 5:40 p.m. Tuesday pending further developments.

As a Coast Guard cutter searched for survivors of the plane crash Tuesday, two Tampa women spoke of their relationships with one of the men on the flight.

One woman, Rula Lutfi, said she would have been on the small plane with her boyfriend, Darien Peckham, but he told her the flight would be too turbulent.

"He said it was going to be a bumpy ride and I wasn't going to like it," she said.

Lutfi said she has been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Peckham for three years. He was in Tallahassee with her during the weekend, and before taking off Sunday the 35-year-old Harbour Island man sent her a text message saying his plane wouldn't be leaving until at least 6 p.m., she said. The plane crashed about 6:45 p.m. while heading to Vandenberg Airport east of Tampa.

Another woman, Karen Hohman, says she holds out hope for the survival of the man she has been in a relationship with for about 10 years.

In a written statement, she says she and Peckham love each other very much. "We spent a wonderful holiday together, along with my family, before he left for his trip. I am amazed at his ambition, he wanted to start a business and he did, I watched and supported him through it all. He is a wonderful man, even more than he knows. He is an extremely capable pilot and has always been extremely cautious. My only concern and hope is that we find him. He is more loved than he could ever know."

Peckham's friend, John Cox, said Peckham told him about a month ago that he was considering proposing to Hohman.

"He just said that she was the greatest girl and he definitely loved her and she was the one," Cox said.

Hohman is the sister of Debbie Swartz, an editor at The News Center, which houses The Tampa Tribune; News Channel 8; and TBO.com.

Peckham is a nuclear medicine technologist who started his career at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa.

The other man on the plane when it crashed, 28-year-old Zachary Schlitt, works for Boos Development Group's Palm Beach Gardens office. A memorial service will be held for Schlitt at 7 p.m. Thursday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Tampa.

In addition to the 87-foot Coast Guard cutter that searched for the men, Citrus County Sheriff's Office employees used side-scanning sonar today to search under water in the area. The sonar search has been discontinued, according to the Coast Guard.

A seat and a flight bag containing aviation headphones were found Monday in the Coast Guard's search grid. Though the items were within the search area, it has not been confirmed whether they came from the plane Peckham and Schlitt were in, Coast Guard spokesman Robert Simpson said Tuesday.

Peckham and Schlitt were aboard a 45-year-old Beech 35 Debonair aircraft when it crashed about 20 miles southwest of Yankeetown, which is in Levy County, according to the Coast Guard.

In a worst-case scenario, if the men survived the crash, models show they would have had eight hours of complete functionality in the water and that hypothermia would have begun to set in about 13 hours after the crash, Simpson said.

Reporter Ray Reyes contributed to this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691.

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