Relatives and friends in Broward County on Friday remembered the pilot who died when his commuter plane crashed near Hibbing, Minn., calling him a professional and a perfectionist who loved flying.
Capt. Marvin Falitz, 42, lived in Lauderhill from 1978 to 1987 and worked as a flight instructor and charter pilot at Fort Lauderdale’s Executive Airport.
Falitz, his co-pilot, and 16 passengers died on Wednesday night when the twin-engine British Aerospace Jetstream 31 turbo-prop crashed into a snow-covered ridge while making a final approach to the Hibbing airport.
The cause of the crash is still unknown. Safety investigators were assembling wreckage and compiling maintenance and radar data on Friday. In Washington, D.C., investigators began reviewing a cockpit voice recorder for clues into the cause of the crash.
In Davie, Falitz’s sister, Renee’, recalled that from the time he was in grammar school her brother’s dream was to work as a commercial pilot.
“It is just all he wanted to do,” she said. “He did everything he could, even having his eyes operated on, to become a pilot.”
Falitz’s poor eyesight kept him out of the Air Force Academy, his sister said. He joined the Navy, but his eyes weren’t good enough to be a pilot there either, she said.
It wasn’t until the mid-’80s, when Falitz underwent surgery to improve his sight, that he qualified to become a commercial pilot, Renee’ Falitz said.
He did it at Executive Airport, she said.
Ken Winters, manager of the Cavair flight school, remembered Falitz as a serious pro.
“He had a professional and perfectionist approach about it. He was really one of the brighter ones,” Winters said.
He said Falitz took his flying skills so seriously that he would take himself on regular training flights to maintain his flying proficiency.
“He had really all the qualities of what you would look for in terms of a professional pilot,” Winters said.
In 1987, Falitz landed a job with Northwest Airlink, flying a commuter plane from Minneapolis to International Falls on the Canadian border, with a stop in Hibbing.
“He had more hours than any other pilot for that plane and that route,” Renee’ Falitz said.
Investigators said the plane clipped a 30-foot-high evergreen tree, then flew three-quarters of a mile before slamming into a hillside in fog and icy drizzle.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board would not speculate on what happened between the initial impact with the tree and the crash, but said it was likely a matter of a few seconds.
The crew did not radio a distress signal to air traffic controllers, who said the Northwest Airlink flight simply disappeared from their radar screen shortly before 8 p.m. Wednesday.
In addition to Falitz, other people killed in the commuter plane crash included: First Officer Chad Erickson, 25, Plymouth, Minn.; and passengers: Bernice Angelo, 70, and George Angelo, 72, both of Hibbing, Minn.; Patricia Burns, 47, Grand Rapids, Minn.; Charlotte Combs, 40, and Kenneth Combs, 40, both of Britt, Minn.; Richard Delak, 53, Anchorage, Alaska; William Griffith, 43, Alpharetta, Ga.; David Halteman, 44, Pickle Lake, Ontario; Theresa Hettinga, 59, Modesto, Calif.; Everett Moore, 26, Pickle Lake, Ontario; Craig Sterle, 31, Hibbing; R. Thacker; Robert Tiburzi, 62, Hibbing; Tony Trujillo, 11, Palmdale, Calif.; William Valeri, 52, Hibbing; and one person not yet identified.
