Friday, April 21, 2000: Local flier lost
Crash of bush pilot's plane in Guatemala shrouded in mystery
By Chris NeelyCaller-Times
Ervin Ashford sits in the cockpit of his Cessna 206 before leaving for Central America. The plane crashed in Guatemala, killing him and an unknown number of passengers. The incident remains unexplained.
Bush pilot Ervin Ashford, 58, lifted off in his Cessna 206 from the jungle village of Mayalan for a quick hop over the Guatemalan mountains to Huehuetenango.
The Corpus Christi man's plane was part of Wings of Hope Christian Association, a group based in St. Louis that makes humanitarian flights in remote regions throughout the world. On board were patients and probably some of their relatives bound for a medical clinic about 78 miles northwest of Guatemala City.
Somewhere near the remote village of Nebaj, with about 70 miles to go, the plane slammed into the top of the mountains, killing all aboard.
That's all anyone knows for sure about the crash; some reports say it happened Monday, some Tuesday. Some say three were aboard; there could have been seven. No one can say just what went wrong.
"We've not been able to get an inspector to the crash site to determine why the crash took place," said Douglas Clements, executive director of Wings of Hope. "Indications are that the plane was working fine, but again, since we've not been there, there's no way we can know that for a fact."
All that uncertainty is unnerving for Gina Luce, who had dated Ashford, off and on, for 25 years and shared a home with him in Corpus Christi for the past three years.
"He always knew what he was doing," Luce said. "He was an experienced pilot - he knew what he was doing.
"He had done that flight many, many times, so I'm assuming it was the weather," she said.
Ashford, a retired Navy commander and former McDonnell Douglas supervisor, had arrived in Guatemala in March.
With him was Ed Schertz, a Wings of Hope mechanic who was to help him set up camp and begin his flights - sometimes 19 a day - between the remote villages and over the mountains.
After Ashford knew his way around, Schertz left him on his own.
"His mission really was to be like a taxi service among all these little villages, because there were no roads, and somehow get them over the mountains to Huehuetenango," Luce said. "You had to go through these mountains blind. There was no tower that could give you weather conditions. You just had to get up there and pray that things were clear."
Ashford's flights carried people in need of medical care and cargo related to economic development. Along the way, he wrote about his travels.
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"Anyway, here's the story: My assignment is in the mountains of Guatemala, flying a Cessna 206 as a true bush pilot. The fields are short grass strips near remote villages. They plan to base me in a remote village where they have a house, (and) there is no electricity or running water."
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Luce said she isn't sure why Ashford agreed to the Guatemala trip.
"He got a phone call one day, and someone said to him, 'We need a pilot to fly in Central America for a year. Do you want to go?' And before he knew anything, he said, 'I'll go.' "
"I begged him not to go," Luce said. "Everyone that we knew begged him not to go."
Clements said Ashford jumped at the chance.
"When the opportunity came where Erv had a choice between living in a fairly modern city vs. the rural area where the poor people are, he immediately chose to live in the rural area, even though there's no running water, there's no electricity. There isn't even a creek nearby to get water, and there's no food.
He was going to have to find a way to eat, live and service the airplane, literally in the middle of nowhere. And because that's where the poor people live, that was Erv's immediate decision without hesitation."
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"Ed and I took off from Huehue en route to San Luis to pick up two sick people. Flying along the south side of the mountains the ride was rough. . . . Turning away from the mountains we got the altitude back, but the downdraft won again. We climbed away from the mountains dodging clouds. Finally we turned toward the mountains well above the saddle in and out of clouds. High terrain all around. Continued climb to 11,500 feet to above all mountains near our route of flight and continued on instruments in clouds. After reaching the Ixcan north of the mountains, we were able to get almost clear of clouds and drop into San Luis in the mouth of the canyon. Smoke from slash and burn farming reduced visibility to two or three miles."
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Ashford lived for adventure, Luce said, and the two of them had packed a lot of travel into their time together: Belize, Honduras and Guatemala. In January 1999, they volunteered as park rangers at Big Bend National Park, giving guided walks and canoeing down Boquillas Canyon. When they returned in April, they began planning a trip to Yellowstone where they took jobs at the visitor's center from July to September 1999.
Luce enjoyed their travels, but spending a year in Guatemala was different, she said.
"We had done backpacking, we had done a lot of adventurous things," she said. "But not for a year at a time."
Luce joined Ashford in January at the Wings of Hope hangar in St. Louis, where they spent a month helping to rebuild the plane he would fly to Guatemala. She planned to join him at his camp next month, hoping to convince him to return.
Toward the end, she thinks that he was beginning to have second thoughts about his mission.
"I had called him and I had said to him, 'Well, have you had enough adventure?' I said, "Maybe Ed could just stay there and you could come home.'"
"And he said, 'Well, maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea.' I think he was realizing it was a lot more than he had bargained for.
"But Erv also was the type who says, 'I told them I would do it and I'll do it.' "
What might have been, then, is shrouded in as much mystery as how Ashford's final adventure ended.
Luce's last conversation with him was Saturday for three minutes on a static-filled line.
"I told him I had written him some e-mails and he said, 'I'm going to town early this week and I'll read them. I love you, goodbye.' "
Staff writer Chris Neely can be reached at 886-3794 or by e-mail at neelyc@caller.com
ASHFORD Obituary
Ervin Alvin Ashford, 58, of Comanche, Texas, passed away Monday April 17, 2000 in Ixcan, Guatemala.He was born on November 2, 1941 in Corpus Christi, Texas to James Leroy Ashford and Grace Bell (Montgomery) Ashford. He was a Pentecostal and a humanitarian pilot with the "Wings of Hope".
He served in the United States Navy from April 15, 1960, until he retired as a Commander on January 30, 1986.
He is survived by Kristen Marie Ashford, daughter, Chicago, Illinois; Grace Palmer, Mother, Comanche, Texas; Martha Fox, Sister, Goldthwaite, Texas; Rosa Terrell, sister, Comanche, Texas; Richard Ashford, brother, Comanche, Texas; and Earl Ashford, Brother, Burleson, Texas.
He was preceded by his father, James L. Ashford and by two brothers, James F. Ashford, and Leroy Ashford.
Funeral Services will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 29, 2000 at the Comanche Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. John Boone officiating.
Burial will be in the Oakwood Cemetery in Comanche, Texas with Comanche Funeral Home in charge.
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