Page 25 - Come Fly with me-In progress

A Tragic Event

One of the saddest days of my life was in 1984, when my dad received a

phone call that my beloved grandpa Flavio and my Noni Bert (Bertha Ann)
had been killed in a plane crash at Flabob. My life would forever change

without these wonderful grandparents in my life. I look back at my

childhood which was idyllic primarily due to them and my parents, of
course, they taught me how to love, live and fly. On the afternoon of

September 3, 1984, Noni and grandpa took off from Flabob’s runway,
something he had done thousands of times before. They were flying their

Piper PA-23-235 to Las Vegas. Their plane ascended at a steep nose-up

angle and then stalled; it descended out of control and crashed killing my
grandparents.

Note: I found two different reports from the Federal crash investigators
regarding the cause of your grandparent’s crash. Both are listed below. Do

you know which is accurate, and even if you do, is this something you want

in the book?

• Federal crash investigators concluded that Grandpa forgot to remove

a theft-control device he had installed the day before, and lost control
only moments after takeoff.

• A National Transportation Safety Board investigation concluded that

during his preflight inspection, Madariaga had not observed that the

elevator was in the locked position, and thus he had taken off with no
pitch control.

It took me a very long time to get over the loss of my beloved

grandparents. At first, I didn't think I would ever be able to get into a