Navy Pilot Is Missing

Lieut. Christopher D. Buckley, a U.S. Navy Seahawk pilot and an East Hampton native, is presumed dead following a helicopter crash during a training exercise off the coast of North Carolina late Friday night.

One of four crew members not yet recovered from the Atlantic Ocean crash site, he had celebrated his 30th birthday two days before the accident.

A Navy investigation into the cause of the accident continues, though the search for the four victims has ended. Like the victims, the hel icopter, which was assigned to Hel icopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Three and operated off the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, an aircraft carrier based in Mayport, Fla., has not been recovered. The search for the aircraft was still under way yesterday.

Never Came Back

The night of the accident, Lieutenant Buckley's helicopter had transported Navy Seals to a North Carolina beach, then flew to the frigate U.S.S. Taylor for a planned refueling stop. In what pilots call a "missed approach," the helicopter approached the ship but was apparently waved off before it could attempt to land.

What happened next remains unclear. A spokeswoman from the public affairs office of the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla., where Lieutenant Buckley was stationed, said there were rough, eight-foot-high seas the night of the crash. The helicopter never returned to the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, as it was scheduled to do.

Neither ship was involved in the accident, according to the Navy, which would release no further details.

Well-Liked Lifeguard

In his hometown Lieutenant Buckley was known to many as a talented lifeguard. He was certified at 16, the youngest age possible, and worked at an ocean beach each summer thereafter until he finished college. He worked first at Indian Wells in Amagansett, then at Kirk Park Beach in Montauk, where he became a lieutenant lifeguard, then returned to Amagansett to guard the Atlantic Avenue Beach.

"Chris was a great guy, very responsible, very easy to get along with," said John J. Ryan Sr. of East Hampton, a retired East Hampton High School teacher who trained Lieutenant Buckley as a lifeguard. "It's such a tragedy."

Above all, he was known as a good person, said Lieutenant Buckley's godmother, Lucy Olszewski, also of East Hampton. "He was just such a good kid; everybody liked him."

Grew Up Here

The only son of David Buckley and the former Elaine McGinnis, he was born on March 11, 1967, at Southampton Hospital. His father is a retired chief of the Suffolk County Police Department, and his parents, who are wintering in Boynton Beach, Fla., live on Toilsome Lane in East Hampton.

Lieutenant Buckley attended the former Most Holy Trinity Catholic School and graduated from East Hampton High School in 1985. He was involved in many student activities, including the track team at the high school.

He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry at the University of Maine, and while studying there enrolled in the Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps through the Maine Maritime Academy. In December 1990 he was commissioned into service with the Navy.

The Navy sent Lieutenant Buckley to graduate school at the University of South Florida, where he earned a master's in business administration before successfully completing flight school at the Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Fla.

He began his training in flying the Seahawk helicopter at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville with the Hel i cop ter Anti-Submarine Squad ron One, and was transferred to his most re cent assignment, Squadron Three, in July 1994.

During his service Lieutenant Buckley was honored with the Armed Forces Service Medal, the Navy Achievement Medal, the Navy Unit Commendation, the Sea Service De ploy ment Ribbon, and, for his participation in the Southwest Asia Cease-Fire Campaign, the Southwest Asia Service Medal with a Bronze Star.

He enjoyed playing golf and did some volunteer work in Florida during his spare time, his father said this week. Lieutenant Buckley was a member of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton as well as of a parish in Florida.

Besides his parents, Lieutenant Buckley leaves four sisters, Maureen Payne of Carleton, Tex., Kathleen Boak of Wilton, Conn., Patricia Haggerty of Boca Raton, Fla., and Susan Scott of New Canaan, Conn., and a grandmother, Dorothy Haberstroh of Weekiwachee, Fla.

A service for the families of the four victims will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station. Lieutenant Buckley's family plans to arrange a service in East Hampton at a later date. Memorial contributions have been suggested to the Stella Maris Regional School in Sag Harbor.

MASUO IKEDA

Masuo Ikeda, a Japanese artist who lived year-round in Springs from 1972 to 1979, died of a stroke in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, on March 8. He was 63.

Mr. Ikeda, who was formerly married to Li-Lan, an artist who still has a house in Springs, was the winner of the International Grand Prix for printmaking at both the Tokyo and Venice Biennales, in 1960 and 1966.

Born in China on Feb. 23, 1934, and brought up in Japan's Nagano Prefecture, Mr. Ikeda learned printmaking while making portraits on the streets of Tokyo's Ginza district.

An acclaimed copperplate artist, he came to America for the first time in 1965 for a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art. He exhibited regularly in New York City at the Associated American Artists Gallery and the Staempfli Gallery, and was a member of several workshops around the country, including the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles.

He and Li-Lan were together from 1966 until they separated in 1979, when he returned to Japan. While living in Springs, Mr. Ikeda exhibited at Guild Hall and at the Elaine Benson Gallery. In 1985 he moved to the hot springs resort of Atami, and began working with ceramics.

Mr. Ikeda was also a writer. He won the Akutagawa Prize in 1977 for his novel "Ege Kai ni Sasagu" (Homage to the Aegean). Two years later the book was turned into a movie, which he directed.

A funeral service was held at the Ioji Temple in Atami on March 10.