Dogging a High-Flying Bird

"Good story! Cops make mistakes, and sometimes they think they are infallible. Jose Diaz and his family knew what he signed up for; it wasn't Sunday School class, and the chance of dying is greater in that profession than in most. So it is a tragedy, but one less cop is not a bad thing. After all, everybody thinks we are in a free country. It's more like a police state. As much as the public wants to believe and the media try to immortalize cops, there are very few good honest cops. So life goes on."

A look at his history shows why O'Connor might have a grudge toward law enforcement. He's been cited for at least 23 traffic violations since 1995, for everything from speeding to running red lights to illegally driving in the HOV lane. In 2001, he was convicted of criminal air safety violations.

The first public record for him that I could find was from 1988, when O'Connor opened a lawn care business in Sunrise. Four years later, he went from mowers to planes when he and his then-wife, Raisa, founded an air charter business, ExecStar Aviation, at Fort Lauderdale Executive's Hangar 16.

O'Connor was in the news in 1993 when a plane he owned, a Cessna 210, went down in the Atlantic after taking off from Fort Lauderdale Executive. The pilot, Jerry Brown, survived the crash and floated for 40 minutes in the ocean before he was rescued by the Coast Guard, according to news reports. "I don't care about the plane," O'Connor told the Sun-Sentinel at the time. Brown was "all right. That's what counts."

Twice, O'Connor filed for bankruptcy, in 1997 and 1998, but he managed to hold on to the air charter business. In 2002, another plane he owned crash-landed, this time at Fort Lauderdale Executive. The pilot, who was attempting a risky maneuver, survived but suffered serious injuries, including broken ribs and a collapsed lung, according to news reports. "We are proud of our safety record and do everything to ensure our fleet and crews surpass Federal Aviation Regulation standards," O'Connor told the Sentinel at the time. He forgot to mention his criminal air safety violation.

That same year, O'Connor appeared in an article in Entrepreneur magazine about how business was booming after 9/11. ExecStar was then a $4 million operation with 21 employees, according to the magazine. In 2005, he and Raisa divorced, and ExecStar was dissolved. Since then, O'Connor has operated a couple of businesses — including one ominously named Piranha Investments — out of a mail slot on Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale.

Raisa now works for the Aero Toy Store at the executive airport. She'd heard about the crash in Mexico, she told me, but she didn't want to talk about her ex-husband. "I have no idea where he is or what he's doing," she said.

I was poking around Hangar 16, O'Connor's old place of business, around the same time that he popped up at nearby Banyan Air Service. I knocked at a nearby hangar; a large, bald man answered the door and proved about as helpful as the ex-wife. He didn't want to give me his name. O'Connor, he said, is "a pretty good guy, but I don't know about his business practices."

On Tuesday, at a condo that O'Connor owns in Coral Springs, I met Jose, a friendly Argentine handyman who didn't speak English. When I asked about O'Connor, he nodded and wrote down a phone number. "That Clyde," he said, pointing to the number.

I drove to Wellington and managed to get past a community gate and find the house that O'Connor bought in late 2005 for $455,000, among a row of two-story tract homes. No one was home but a little white dog. I waited for about 90 minutes and then left a note on the door. A man named Jack called me later and said he lived in the house but had no idea how to contact his landlord, Clyde O'Connor.

Several times, I called the number Jose gave me before a woman finally answered. O'Connor wasn't home yet.

I told her what I was writing about. "I'll make sure he gets the message," she said.

"So he owned the plane that went down in Mexico?"

"I have no idea," she said.

O'Connor didn't call. He was still a ghost, but he was coming into focus. And I can't help but wonder if he, like that Gulfstream II, will come crashing down to Earth soon.