William Don Carlos

Plane crash kills special pair
Victims are lawyer, wife who began ranch for troubled girls

By Judd Slivka and Brent Whiting
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 9, 2000

Tom Tingle/The Arizona Republic

Investigators look over the burned-out shell of a small plane that crashed north of Deer Valley Road and east of Interstate 17 on Monday morning, killing Bill and Pauline Don Carlos. The plane apparently hit a power line nearby and crashed in an empty lot

An extraordinary couple died this morning.

A Sun City West lawyer and his wife, the founder of a ranch for troubled girls, were killed when their light plane crashed into a north Phoenix dirt lot on approach to Deer Valley Municipal Airport.

Bill Don Carlos, 59, who specialized in probate law and representing the elderly, and his wife, Pauline, 55, a psychologist, were killed returning from a trip to Mexico when the single-engine Cessna 210 they were flying nosed into the ground between 23rd Avenue and Interstate 17 at 11:16 a.m..

David Soto/The Arizona Republic

The Don Carlos' bloodhound Bubba is the lone survivor of the north Phoenix plane crash today.

One of the couple's dogs, Christina, was killed. Miraculously, one dog escaped, a bloodhound named Bubba who was taken to the Human Society, where he was X-rayed and treated for shock. Volunteers said, all things considered, Bubba was fine.

The Don Carlos' neighbors, associates and friends were not.

"This is just unbelievable," said Barbara Donald, who lives near the couple in Arrowhead Ranch in north Glendale. Donald used Don Carlos as a probate lawyer. She found out about the crash from a member of Don Carlos' legal staff. "We just can't fathom this whole thing. They were a delightful couple. They are good neighbors, very caring and community minded."

In 1985, Pauline founded the Mingus Mountain Estate near Prescott Valley as a place for troubled girls - mostly those who had been sexually abused - to go for rehabilitation. It started as a small, in-state program. Now, girls from across the country are referred to it.

Outdoor recreation was a large part of the program, and it was not uncommon for Bill to saddle up the stallion he kept there and lead the girls on trail rides, a family friend said.

"Bill was a cowboy at heart," said Bradley Hahn, Bill's law partner. "He loved his horses. He loved his family. He was well respected as a lawyer in Sun West."

The couple was respected for more than their professional abilities. They were respected as people, too.

"Those are two people I would say should be saints," said the Rev. Gene Laramy, who sat on the ranch's board for several years and opened a thrift store to help support it.

"Pauline's whole life was the kids. She became a mother to each and every one of them."

Pauline spent much of her time at the ranch. William - Bill to his friends - would fly up Thursday afternoons and fly back Monday morning to do business.

The couple each had two sons from previous marriages.

Friends of the couple said they were coming back from a house in Mexico, near Peñasco.

"Bill loved to fly and loved to fish," Laramy said. "It wouldn't surprise me if he were there fishing."

The couple departed Nogales International Airport at 10:20 a.m. for the easy hour flight to Deer Valley, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. The plane's call sign was "8 Mike-Mike."

On final approach, 11/2 miles out of Deer Valley, Bill Don Carlos radioed the tower that the Cessna had loss of engine power, and that he wasn't sure he was going to make the runway, said Bruce Nelson, an operations officer with the FAA.

"8 Mike-Mike" clipped a utility pole, taking five feet off the top, and dropping a 12,740 volt line. It caused a power surge, which most of the neighbors shrugged off. When the plane hit the pole, it sheared off the front tire.

The crash site became a gruesome spectacle in an industrial neighborhood where workers have long since learned to live with the constant buzzing that comes from private planes landing and taking off on the airport's Runway 7-Right.

This morning, crowds of onlookers - workers on break, kids off from school riding scooters around 11:15 a.m. - followed the black smoke cloud to the dirt lot a half-mile off Interstate 17 at the Deer Valley Road exit. They saw the red-painted tail cone of "8 Mike-Mike," skewed at 60 degrees from the ground, the plane's rudder forced all the way over to the left, scorch marks on the dirt around it.

Joe Donaldson was working at a nearby junkyard when he heard a loud crash behind him.

"It sounded like something heavy hitting dirt," Donaldson said.

Donaldson whipped around, saw a big cloud of dust. As it cleared, he could see the plane - flames shooting out of the engine area.

In a matter of minutes, the entire plane was on fire, he said.

By the time rescuers got there, the forward portion of "8 Mike-Mike" was burned out, two extraordinary lives with it.

Republic writers Lisa Chiu, Dennis Godfrey and Dan Gonzalez contributed to this article.

Reach the reporters at judd.slivka@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8097 or brent.whiting@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-6925.

Dog brings 9 lives to home for troubled girls

Christina Leonard
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 24, 2000

Bubba, the bloodhound who miraculously survived a plane crash this
month, soon will carry on the tradition his owners started 15 years ago.

The 140-pound pooch who is battling cancer will join the girls at the
Mingus Mountain Estate Residential Center as a living tribute to Pauline
and Bill Don Carlos.

"Bubba did survive for some reason," Valley veterinarian Douglas Sysel
said. "Maybe it was to bring attention to the plight of these girls."

Bill, 59, and his wife, Pauline, 55, died Oct. 9 when the single-engine
Cessna 210 they were flying home from Mexico nosed into the ground
between 23rd Avenue and Interstate 17, north of Deer Valley Municipal
Airport.

Bubba escaped with only a cut on his back, but with a heavy heart.

"He was very depressed for about three or four days," Sysel said.
"Animals do grieve, but they don't grieve as long as people do."

Sysel said that Bubba wouldn't eat for the first few days, so he enlarged
a photo of Bill and put it by Bubba's food dish. That was the first night he
ate.

The Don Carloses often brought Bubba to the ranch, which is a home,
school and live-in counseling center for about 50 troubled girls.

"They wanted a bloodhound who could track the girls when they ran
away," Sysel said. "But he was such a poor tracker that most of the
time they could find the girls, but would then have to go find Bubba."

Although Bubba can be aggressive, "once you get to know Bubba, he's
the sweetest dog in the world," Sysel said.

And the girls love him. Ever since the crash, they haven't stopped asking
for him, said Chris Banken, executive director of Mingus Mountain.

"He just likes to run," Banken said. "Every time Bill would jog in the
morning, he'd be out running around . . . then he just roams around
campus and howls when vehicles pull up."

Bubba will likely make the move in a few weeks. Even then, he may
make trips to a specialist in Tucson for treatment of a cancerous tumor
in his hind leg.

The vet said Bubba's prognosis is good.

The bulk of Mingus Mountain's funding comes from fees paid by the
states that send girls to the home. It also depends heavily on donations.

Reach the reporter at christina.leonard@arizonarepublic.com or
(602) 444-8543.

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