GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Eckes Anitok, left, uncle to lost student pilot Jacob Jacob, and Anitok's wife, Chomi, sat in their living room yesterday.
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Downed pilot was singularly focused on achieving license
Jacob Jacob's Oahu family recalls his determination
JACOB JACOB was close to realizing his ambition of returning home to the Marshall Islands to fly for the local airlines.
The 22-year-old was four to five weeks away from receiving his commercial pilot's license and had been studying hard for a big test today.
"He's almost there -- was almost there," said his uncle, Eckes Anitok, with whom he lived in Waipahu.
On Thursday night, the plane he was flying with commercial pilot instructor Joshua Tabisola plummeted into the ocean off Molokai's Kalaupapa Peninsula. No trace has been found of the Cessna 177B or its two occupants.
Jacob worked as a trainer for the line cooks at Mai Tai Bar in Ala Moana Center. When he didn't show up for work Friday, his supervisor, Fernando Ladines, suspected Jacob might have been in the plane that disappeared off Molokai.
"It's not like him to miss a minute. He's always on time," Ladines said.
He dialed Jacob's cellular telephone number, but the phone was turned off. Ladines knew Jacob was scheduled to fly Thursday night, but didn't want to believe it was Jacob's plane that disappeared. At about 5 p.m., Ladines' boss called Anitok and found out it was indeed Jacob's plane that disappeared.
"I can't believe it's happened," Ladines said.
Ladines said Jacob never swore and was always laughing and smiling. When other employees were in a bad mood Jacob would joke with them to cheer them up, he said.
And everybody knew about Jacob's pilot training because he told them about it.
In his previous job as a delivery driver for Cookie Corner, his employer scheduled Jacob's work hours around his pilot training, said Jim McArthur, company owner.
About three months ago Jacob told Ladines about an emergency he had at Honolulu Airport. His landing gear didn't deploy. When he did land there were emergency vehicles on the runway to assist him.
"He said, 'I wasn't even scared,'" Ladines said.
Jacob was to start a vacation today. Ladines said he was supposed to take a test today and visit his girlfriend in Seattle.
Jacob's uncle Anitok wishes he could bring Jacob's body home to his mother, as is Marshallese custom. "But I got nothing now," he said.
The family is gathering his belongings, photos from friends and school, newspaper articles of the accident, so he has something to present to Rubiko Jacob, who grieves for her firstborn.
"She was crying the minute they told her," he said. "She's still crying."
After a year of college in the Marshall Islands, Jacob Jacob went to Hawaii on a government scholarship to attend flight school. He left behind his mother and younger brother and two sisters, who looked up to him.
"Even here when he was with us, my kids looked to him as a role model," Anitok said. "He told them: 'Everything in life is possible. Just stay in school and study.'"
Anitok's wife, Chomi, said their six children, ranging in age from 4 to 16, couldn't believe Jacob was gone.
"They're telling us, 'Jacob is coming back home and Jacob is still out there.' They have faith in God that he'll come back home," she said.
His absence leaves a big hole in the Anitok family, who treated Jacob like one of their own children.
"But we're not giving up hope," Chomi Anitok said. "We'll continue to pray."
The Anitoks didn't get word of the accident until 2 p.m. the next day since the flight school, Anderson Aviation, did not have updated contact information.
Chomi Anitok called her nephew's cell phone at 1 a.m. Friday since it was unlike him to stay out that late and not inform the family of his whereabouts.
Later that day, she phoned his friends and finally got the news after calling the school.
"We never stopped praying that somehow it'll come to a close," Chomi Anitok said. "We'll find something."
The family is asking anyone who spots what may be the wreckage or a trace of the two men to call the Coast Guard or Anderson Aviation.