Joseph William "Joe" Hazen

1934 - 2020

Captain Joseph "Joe" William Hazen

Captain Joseph "Joe" William Hazen, 85, passed away peacefully on April 1, 2020 at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue, WA.

Joe was born on June 1, 1934 in Detroit, MI to parents Joseph and Katherine Hazen.

After completing high school and two years of college at Wayne State University in Detroit, Joe embarked on his lifelong path of being an Aviator. Joe began his flying career as a Naval Air Cadet in 1954 and achieved his wings in Pensacola, FL checking out in the Douglas AD Skyraider. He loved serving in the Marine Corps and he loved being a Marine. Semper Fi. In 1959 Joe left the Marine Corps to pursue a career in commercial aviation. He began flying for a small regional Detroit based carrier as well as for Northwest Airlines. After being furloughed twice from each carrier, Joe received a call that would immeasurably change his life forever. The call was from the CIA and the job was flying in Southeast Asia with an unheard of CIA funded airline called Air America. While working for Air America from 1961 to 1968, Joe lived in Vientiane, Laos for the first five years and not even his mother knew exactly where he was or what he was doing. Joe was one of Air America's original North American T-28 pilots but his primary missions were flying fixed wing Short Take Off and Landing (STOL) aircraft to include the Helio Courier, de Havilland Caribou, Piper Pilatus, and Dornier Do 28. The missions consisted mostly of carrying supplies to be airdropped to the local tribes and insurgents in the upcountry of Laos. According to Joe there were only two types of cargo, feathers and lead. The load was either light or heavy and you really didn't need to know what was in it, just when and where it was to be dropped out of the plane into the jungle below. Joe stated that he held the record of the shortest landing at a distance of only six feet. He would acknowledge that the landing was in a strong headwind and the runway was uphill and after a strong monsoon rain in the mud. But a record is a record. Joe said that "Flying for Air America was the best and most interesting flying I ever did."

With the birth of his first child imminent, Joe moved to Tachikawa, Japan in 1966 where he stayed with Air America another two years before joining Japan Airlines (JAL) as a DC-8 co-pilot flying from Tokyo to many of JAL's international destinations. Joe's goal as a commercial pilot was to be Captain. He had an impeccable flying record throughout his career and on November 22, 1968, he saved 107 lives while co-piloting a DC-8 named "Shiga." The plane was headed to San Francisco from Tokyo but on final approach through dense fog, ultimately crash landed in San Francisco bay 2.5 miles short of runway 28L. After a lengthy investigation by the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB), Joe was found to be instrumental in averting a total disaster by recognizing they were too low and quickly acted to get the plane's nose up and power added. This resulted in a relatively smooth belly flop into the bay. No passengers were hurt in the incident and the Captain was found to be at fault. You could say Joe was the original Sully Sullenberger. Although, if you asked Joe, he'd say he was just doing his job. JAL recognized Joe's professionalism and talent and quickly promoted him to Captain in 1969. Joe upgraded aircraft and began to fly the largest commercial aircraft, the Boeing 747, in 1974. He flew for another 20 years as Captain until his retirement in 1994. Joe officially logged over 25,000 hours flying time, or over 2.84 years of constant flying time, over the course of his 40 year flying career. Joe learned early that there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old and bold pilots. He was a consummate professional.

Joe was a big man with a strong commanding voice and he loved his steak perfectly cooked, his Scotch neat and his Martinis dirty. He had an incredible memory of names, dates and places and always lit up when retelling his wild adventures. He was well liked and respected and always reached out and kept in touch with friends and family. Joe was happily married to Miyoko (Miyo) Matsuzaki for 47 years and he loved his family very much. Joe is survived by his wife Miyo, his three children and his five grandchildren. Sons Anthony Joseph and Michael David are from Joe's first marriage and daughter Ann Maya from Joe's marriage with Miyo. Anthony has three children: Katherine Carr, John Anthony and Anna Josephine. Maya has two children: Evan Demian and Scarlett Alina. A private memorial will be held by his family and he will be greatly missed.

Please sign Joe's online Guestbook at www.Legacy.com.