The mother of the missing pilot involved in Monday's crash of a mail cargo plane said yesterday she believes her son died when the twin-engine aircraft plunged into the ocean 7.2 miles southeast of Lihu'e Airport.

Anne Akita of Wailupe Circle said she doesn't want to dwell on questions surrounding the crash and has found comfort in the outpouring of aloha the family has received in the wake of the tragedy that took the life of her son, Paul Akita, 37.

"We can go back and pick at this and pick at that but we don't want to go there," Akita said. "We don't want to tarnish his memory right now with that kind of stuff."

The Coast Guard called off the search for the pilot 31 hours after receiving a report of the downed Alpine Air twin-engine turboprop Beechcraft King Air 1900 carrying 4,200 pounds of mail between Honolulu and Lihu'e.

Anne Akita said she initially was told the search would last two to three days, and the recovery of an inflated life raft from the plane offered a glimmer of hope that Paul had survived the crash.

But with so little wreckage found and radar evidence that the plane experienced a sudden descent, Akita said she has come to believe that her son did not suffer before his death.

"If somebody gave me more reason to think that he had survived, I would have gone with that," she said. "We didn't want to give up hope. We only wish there was concrete evidence to help us move on."

Firefighters on Kaua'i combed the shoreline looking for the missing pilot, and Coast Guard officials assured the Akitas they had employed extensive resources to conduct a thorough search of a 200-square-mile area where wind and ocean currents would have carried their son.

Two HH-65 Dolphin helicopters, a C-130 search plane, a 25-foot vessel from Coast Guard Kaua'i Station, the 87-foot patrol boat Kittiwake from Nawiliwili and the 225-foot buoy tender Walnut were used in the search.

Akita said she is disappointed that it took nearly two hours to confirm the Alpine Air plane was missing, delaying the start of rescue efforts.

The FAA had instructed Paul Akita to follow an Aloha Airlines flight into Lihu'e and contact the agency when he landed. Akita did not issue an emergency signal before the crash, but when he didn't contact the FAA, the agency tried to locate him.

FAA officials have said that because of the early hour, the air traffic control tower at the Kaua'i airport was not open and the mail cargo company couldn't be contacted to see if it had heard from its pilot.

When asked by the FAA to check if the Alpine Air flight had landed safely at Lihu'e, the pilot of the Aloha flight said yes after apparently mistaking another Beechcraft King Air for the mail cargo plane.

The search was not launched until 7 a.m., after Alpine Air reported its plane missing. The Coast Guard suspended its efforts at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

National Transportation Safety Board officials said that with so little of the aircraft to examine, it may be difficult to determine the cause of the crash.

Anne Akita said she is taking comfort in her Christian faith and believes her son is with the Lord. The fact that her son's body has not been recovered has been more difficult for her husband, Osamu "Sam" Akita, to accept since the Japanese culture venerates the remains of loved ones.

Paul, the couple's only child, was born in Nagoya, Japan, where his father owns a manufacturing business. His mother is from the Montreal area.

When Paul was 11, the family moved to Hawai'i. Anne Akita, who works as a nurse at a senior daycare center, said that with the family's multicultural roots, Hawai'i seemed an ideal blend of East-meets-West.

Within a few years after moving to the Islands, Paul became a U.S. citizen ahead of his mother.

"He didn't want to go back to Japan. He just loved it here," she said.

He attended 'Aina Haina Elementary and graduated in 1989 from Our Redeemer Lutheran School in Manoa.

There was hardly a time when her son wasn't enchanted with the notion of flying, she said, and his boyhood room was filled with model airplanes.

"As a young child it was always his dream to fly," Akita said. "It was just always airplanes."

But the dream seemed out of reach until the University of North Dakota Aerospace Foundation opened a program at Hawai'i Community College.

Paul Akita enrolled and earned his pilot's license, then his instructor's and multiengine licenses. He started flying passenger, instruction and tour flights for a series of companies including Washin Air, Big Kahuna Aviation and Mokulele Airlines in Kona, although his ultimate goal was to fly large commercial airliners.

Anne Akita remembers her first — and only — flight with her son at the controls of a small plane. She said it was a "white-knuckle" affair as the aircraft swooped in for a landing.

"I tried not to show it: 'Very good, dear.' "

Paul later earned a bachelor's degree in aviation from Everglades University, and in July 2004 joined Alpine Air, where he was one of the company's 10 pilots in Hawai'i.

Company officials said Akita was well-acquainted with the Beechcraft Air King 1900, and his mother said he received training for the aircraft in New York.

Paul's ability to speak Japanese served him well in both his career as a pilot and in part-time work as a surf instructor for Hawaiian Fire in Kalaeloa.

Akita's biography on the surf school's Web site said his favorite place to spend the day off was Yokohama Bay during a west swell: "Sit there after surfing some good waves and kick back and drink some chilled beers and think 'lucky we live Hawai'i.' "

In describing himself, he said: "I try to be a good person and try not to think of myself. Well, you have to admit being perfect is really hard, but I will try my hardest to be the best that I can be and I hope everyone does the same."

Akita also said his wish was that "everybody's dream comes true and the whole world learns and exercises the 'aloha spirit.' "

In the wake of his death, the head of Alpine Air in Utah flew to Hawai'i to be with the Akitas, and friends and neighbors have dropped by to share stories of Paul's thoughtfulness and kindness. "It's amazing. That's what we're thriving on," his mother said.

In addition to his parents, Paul Akita is survived by his girlfriend.

Alpine Air will fly the family to Kaua'i, where they will go out in a boat to scatter flowers in his memory.

A "surfer's farewell" off Wailupe also is planned, with details to be announced later.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.