SAN FRANCISCO -- Flower arrangements filled the tiny storefront at
Travel Trends in the Castro district here in sympathy for the loss
of Will Bryant, one of the firm's four agents, who was a passenger
on the ill-fated Alaska Airlines Flight 261.
"We miss him very much," said agency owner Riyad Khoury. "He was
a very good agent, very personable and enthusiastic."
Bryant, 46, was returning from a weekend trip to Puerto
Vallarta, Mexico, with a friend, James Luque, 40, also of San
Francisco, when they perished in the airplane crash in the Pacific
Ocean.
Bryant was a travel agent for 11 years, the last 18 months with
Travel Trends. Prior to that he was with Preview Travel, also in
San Francisco, and had worked at other agencies in Northern
California.
The tragedy of Flight 261 hit Travel Trends doubly hard. In
addition to the loss of Bryant, the agency also had two clients on
board the doomed flight.
Several weeks ago, manager Jay D'Amato booked Toni Choate and
her 17-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, on a Pleasant Holidays
package to Puerto Vallarta that included the Alaska Airlines
flight.
"We had developed a great rapport over the months that she was
planning the trip," D'Amato said. "When she came to pick up the
documents, she asked me what I wanted her to bring back from Mexico
and I said nothing, only to hear she had her best vacation ever.
She said she was going to bring me back something really big
anyway. That was the last thing she said to me before she walked
out the door."
D'Amato said the morning after the plane crash, still numb from
the shock of Bryant's death on the flight, he was struck by the
awful thought that his client also might have been on the same
aircraft. He rushed to the office to check records and confirmed
his worst fears.
As the news of Bryant's death spread through the travel
industry, dozens of flower arrangements from tour operators, hotels
and clients began arriving at the agency.
A memorial was set up on Bryant's desk and in the agency's
storefront window facing busy Castro Street. Dozens of people stop
every hour to look at the flowers and the photos of Bryant, Luque
and other passengers that have been placed there.
Khoury said Bryant had developed a loyal clientele in the
predominantly gay neighborhood of the city.
He had taken his first trip to Europe in December on the French
Government Tourist Office's first fam trip for agents specializing
in the gay market, and he was excited about selling France, a
change from his specialties of Hawaii and Mexico, Khoury said.
Khoury and D'Amato, although are shaken by the tragedy, said
they still are working long hours to keep the agency operating and
making sure Bryant's clients are taken care of. They said they are
thankful for the hundreds of telephone calls, all the flowers and
the support of walk-in customers who expressed their condolences in
the days following the crash.
It is the second airplane crash in a month to take the life of a
San Francisco travel agent.
In January, Siegfried Richert and his wife, Theresa, owners of
Peck Judah Travel, the city's oldest agency, died in a crash in San
Jose, Costa Rica.