Palos Verdes, Hermosa Beach plane crash victims recalled as adventurous, charitable
Chuck and Leslie Chambers.
“Plan your life as if you are going to live forever. Live you life as if you are going to die tomorrow.”
The quote on a website about Baja Mexico is attributed to Carlos Fiesta, the alter ego of Peninsula Realtor Chuck Chambers.
Last week Chambers spent five days practicing what he preached. He and friends Russell Urban and Sean Kelly spent the week at the legendary surf spot Scorpion Bay in Baja surfing and watching the Baja 1000 road race.
Russell was a retired Peninsula elementary school teacher who grew up surfing in Hawaii and who had taught Chamber’s daughter Tracy. Kelly was a longtime Hermosan, an avid surfer, and a member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, where he taught conformation classes, chaperoned youth trips with his wife Laura, and “made it cool to be Catholic.”
Sunday afternoon, the three took off in Chambers four-seat, Beechcraft Musketeer for the 400 mile flight to Zamperini Field in Torrance. They departed from San Felipe in Baja, and stopped to clear customs and refuel across the border in Calexico. About 25 miles short of their destination Chambers radioed to air traffic control at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport that he was having fuel problems.
The plane was just 50 feet off the ground when it flew over the Fashion Island fire station. The alarmed firefighters rushed out to clear nearby Newport Center Drive for a possible landing.
“He almost landed on top of our hotel. Not sure how he was going to land on Newport Center Drive. It is fairly short…But as any pilot knows, he had the sense to ditch it away from danger. His last heroic gesture,” a person who identified himself as The Sculpin wrote on the BajaNomad.com forum.
The plane landed upside down in Newport Bay. Firefighters attempted to cut the men free from their seatbelts prior to the plan submerging, but the three friends were already dead. The Orange County coroner’s office determined they died from drowning.
Sean Kelly was a youth leader at Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Russell Urban had reached legendary status as a teacher when he retired in 2007.
The cause of the crash is under investigation by the National Transportation and Safety Board. Friends who knew Chambers to be an experienced and meticulous pilot were skeptical of early reports that the plane ran out of fuel.
James Sanders, owner of Re/Max Palos Verdes, worked with Chambers for 10 years, before Chambers opened his own office.
“He was an adventurous guy, but pilot friends I’ve talked to say he would never have run out of fuel. They suspect it was engine failure,” Sanders said.
Chambers began selling real estate after graduating from Long Beach State in 1977. He and his wife Leslie were involved in the opening of Cornerstone School in 1996, where they met Urban.
Urban began teaching at Point Vicente Elementary School in 1973, and had achieved legendary status among Peninsula students and parents by the time of his retirement in 2007.
While on surf trips to Mexico in his early 20s, Urban began bringing toys and clothing to the Rancho Milagro orphanage outside of Ensenada.
After Urban and Chambers became friends, they shared their passions for surfing and Mexico.
Kelly was recalled with admiration by Stephanie Criona, a former youth minister still active at Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“He was amazing. He was the kind of guy who made it cool to be Catholic for the kids. When they became young adults, they still wanted to hang with surfer Kelly. He was real, down to earth,” Criona said.
Kids could bring any of their troubles to Kelly.
“He was just one of those loving guys who really cared about them,” Criona said.
Church members brought a “singing vigil” to the Kelly house on Tuesday evening.
“He was the real Catholic,” Criona said. “…All the young girls wanted to some day find a Catholic husband like Sean, and they all loved his wife Laura as well.”
Kelly was born in Illinois, and moved to Southern California where he became an avid surfer, skier and snowboarder. He met Laura Mani 15 years ago.
Sunday’s accident was the second small plane crash to claim the life of a local Realtor in just over a year. In July 2009, Re/Max Beach Cities Realtor Rajesh Vashdeve, who went by the name Rich VR, died along with two other men when their Beachcraft Bonanza G36 crashed at Hawthorne Airport.
A beach memorial for Chuck Chambers will be held Sunday at Torrance Beach, in front of Seaside Grill at 3 p.m.
Times and locations for services for Urban were not available at press time.
Visitation for Kelly will be 3 to 6 p.m. Friday at Rice Mortuary, 5310 Torrance Blvd., Torrance. Services will be 7 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, 320 Massey St., Hermosa Beach. ER