News
Florida pastor's plane found in N.C. mountains
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Published: May 13, 2008
Updated: 05/13/2008 03:15 pm
ASHEVILLE - Searchers have located a small plane that disappeared during a flight to Arkansas, and officials say both occupants died in the crash in North Carolina's rugged western mountains.
Maj. John Maxfield of the Civil Air Patrol said the wreckage was found about 9:10 a.m. today near Cold Mountain in the Shining Rock Wilderness Area.
Maxfield said that the plane left Rutherford County's airport about 5 a.m. Monday on its way to North Little Rock Airport. A locator beacon guided searchers - three airplanes, a Highway Patrol helicopter and four ground teams - to the area.
Maxfield said the victims were identified as the pilot, the Rev. Forrest Pollock, and his son, Preston Pollock, both of Brandon, Fla.
Pollock was the pastor at Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla.
At the church today, Rev. George Thomasson told about 100 staff and church members the grim news.
"We have been given the news that the actual plane was identified, and it is the pastor's plane and that Pastor Forrest and his son Preston were found having died," Thomasson said. "All of our hearts are broken."
The crowd, including Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee, a church member, openly wept.
Later, Thomasson told reporters that Pollock flew to North Carolina with 13-year-old Preston and 14-year-old daughter Brooke to visit Pollock's mother. On Monday, he and Preston were to fly to Little Rock, Ark., to pick up another passenger for the flight to a Christian networking conference in Texas.
"We have not lost Forrest Pollock. We know just where he is. One day there will be a reunion time," Thomasson said.
Pollock worked in television before being drawn to the ministry. He also worked as a print reporter "before God called me into ministry," he told The Tampa Tribune in 2007.
After graduating from Southwestern Baptist Seminary in 1994, Pollock served churches in Fort Worth, Texas, for three years and Baton Rouge, La., for five years before joining Bell Shoals.
He had been working toward a master's degree from Harvard University.
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N.C. Politics
Federal Politics
The Downtown Summer Music Series will begin on Thursday. Ed Bumgardner talks to some of the organizers of the Downtown Jazz lineup, in which a form of music known as "smooth jazz" will play a more prominent role this year.
Thursday's relish stories will appear in the Entertainment section.
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