Plane crash victims remembered at sea

Sunday, July 12, 2009

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Byron worked for Quality Powder Coating. Arceneaux was his friend.

BAY NEWS 9 -- Family members of the victims in Wednesday's plane crash off Pasco County held a memorial at sea for the men Sunday.

They placed wreaths and red roses in the Gulf of Mexico to say their farewells.

The family members also offered a bit more information about the last two victims to be named -- Jeff Byron and his life partner Greg Arceneaux.

Byron worked for the Texas metal coating company, Quality Powder Coating, that owns the plane.

The men have been together for 17 years and lived together in Dallas, Texas.

Family members say Byron liked to fish and golf and was a family man. They describe Arceneaux as a laid back guy who loved to socialize. Both men visited the Tampa Bay area two to three times a year.

The men were in the Bay area during the July 4 weekend to celebrate Byron's birthday. They went back home to Dallas for a few days and were returning to Tampa Bay for a five-day business trip.

A memorial was held for the victims Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tampa man was on plane

A Tampa man was also on that plane when it crashed.

Mike Parks was a media production manager with McNichols Co. in Tampa. He was said to be well-liked at the steel company's Rocky Point office.

The company's president released the following statement:

More Information

"This is a tragedy that will be felt by Mike's loving family and friends and his close-knit family here at McNichols forever. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of all the passengers involved in the accident."

The plane was headed to Tampa from Texas.

Identities of other victims

The other two men on board were also from Texas: company president Roland Shurrer and pilot Steve Barrows.

The medical examiner's office says investigators recovered fragmented remains from the Gulf of Mexico. Now the medical examiner is asking families to submit DNA samples.

The process of positively identifying the remains could take weeks.

Search called off

The Coast Guard called off the search Thursday afternoon, saying the crash was catastrophic and presumably no one survived.

Human remains were found along with debris about 20 miles off the coast west of Port Richey.

The Coast Guard had been searching using a cutter, helicopters and an additional small boat.

Wreckage brought back from the crash included an airplane seat, briefcases and more.

In addition to Parks, four other people were believed to have been on board the plane, a twin-engine Cessna, which was flying from McKinney, Texas to Tampa.

The plane was registered to a Texas-based company, Q4 Aviation LLC, also known as Quality Powder Coating.

The company president Roland Shurrer, and company pilot Steve Barrows were confirmed to be on board, but the identities of the two other passengers have not yet been released.

Quality Powder Coating released a statement, saying "Our thoughts and concerns continue to be focused on members of our company family who were on the airplane - and the members of their respective families."

Severe turbulence at time of crash

The Federal Aviation Administration said at 5,000 feet the pilot of the aircraft reported encountering severe turbulence from a line of thunderstorms.

Air traffic controllers in Jacksonville said the plane dropped off their radar just before 3 p.m.

The National Transportation Safety Board will try to recover the rest of the wreckage and determine what caused the plane to go down.