On way to ski trip, plane crashes in cemetery
Three Seventh-day Adventist families are among the 14 victims killed in a March 22 airplane crash in Butte, Montana. All three families were members or regular attendees at congregations in Northern California; the three husbands were longtime friends who attended both church-owned Pacific Union College and Loma Linda University.
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board said it could be months before a cause is determined.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's regional office in Renton, Washington, said a total of 14 people on board the aircraft -- seven adults and seven children -- were killed when the plane crashed and burned 500 feet from the runway at Bert Mooney Airport in Butte, the Associated Press reported. The plane had crashed into Holy Cross Cemetery in Butte, officials said.
While the Butte Coroner's office has not yet officially released the names of the victims, media reports and family members confirm Dr. Erin Jacobson, an ophthalmologist; his wife, Amy Feldkamp Jacobson, a dental hygienist; and children Ava, 3, and Taylor, 4, and Jude, 2, were among the victims. The Jacobson's resided in St. Helena, California.
Also confirmed as victims were Loma Linda University alum Dr. Michael L. Pullen of Galt, California, who had a dental practice in Valley Springs, his wife Dr. Vanessa Feldkamp Pullen, a pediatrician and Amy's sister, and the Pullen's children Sydney and Christopher. The Pullens were said to be members of the Lodi-English Oaks Seventh-day Adventist Church in Lodi, California. Michael Pullen also held a degree in engineering, the Web site for his dental practice said.
The third known set of victims are the family of Dr. Brent D. Ching, a dentist from Chico, California, his wife, Kristen, and their two children. Ching was a 1998 graduate of Loma Linda University's School of Dentistry, LLU officials confirmed.
Church officials said the tragedy was a loss to the Adventist community. "Tragedies such as this remind us of the importance of our belief in the blessed hope," said Don C. Schneider, president of the church in North America. "It is at the second coming of Jesus Christ that events such as this will be eternally healed."
At a March 23 press briefing, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer told reporters, "I'm sure that this evening and tomorrow evening, moms and dads, families all over Montana will say an extra prayer for these children and these families."
