The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 3, 2008

The Coast Guard has called off its search for two pilots whose plane disappeared Sunday 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.

The men were aboard a 45-year-old Beech 35 Debonair aircraft when it crashed at 6:45 p.m. Sunday about 20 miles southwest of Yankeetown in Levy County, according to the Coast Guard. The plane was headed to Vandenberg Airport east of Tampa.

Coast Guard officials said models show the pair 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. The search was called off almost 48 hours after the crash.

On 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, 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," said Lutfi, who said she has been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Peckham, 35, 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.

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."

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. Schlitt, 28, 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.