A father of four who had another child on the way was among the two men killed when a vintage single-engine plane went down and slammed into a home in an Akron, Ohio, residential neighborhood earlier this month.
According to the Summit County Medical Examiner, the victims were identified as David Garcia, a pilot from Hammond, Indiana, and flight instructor Colin Albee, 39, of Allen, Texas. The two men died when the 1963 Piper Cherokee they were aboard crashed on May 14 into a home on the 2000 block of Canterbury Circle in Akron. The medical examiner confirmed Tuesday the identities in a statement shared with media outlets.
NTD News contacted the medical examiner’s office seeking further details.
The plane, which had left from Akron Fulton Airport east of the crash location, went down west of Interstate 77. The crash started a structure fire at the home. Both men aboard were killed; no bystanders on the ground were reported injured.
The family inside the home escaped before the fire consumed the house. A father inside had managed to get his children—including two young ones who had been napping upstairs at the time—out of the house before the flames spread, according to neighbor Christi Gould, who spoke with the family shortly after the crash.
Gould was home with her own children when the plane came down.
"We were sitting there, the power flickered for a few seconds, and then I heard the whining of a plane," she told News 5 Cleveland. "We have the regional airport up the street, and so you can hear these planes all the time, and you just heard a real quick whining of it like it was revving and then all of a sudden, 'boom,' explosion."
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the crash occurred at 3:45 p.m. local time. The FAA confirmed it is investigating the incident, with the National Transportation Safety Board taking the lead on the probe.
David Garcia was laid to rest at a funeral mass on May 21, according to an update posted to the GoFundMe page by organizer Brandi Garcia, who identified herself as Lisa's sister-in-law. "It was bittersweet, laying David to rest and getting to see all of you who were touched by his life," she wrote. According to the fundraiser, all proceeds go directly to Lisa to cover funeral and cemetery costs, as well as living expenses for her and the children going forward.
At the time of publication, over $47,000 of a $50,000 goal was raised.