Pilot killed in crash had been on a mercy mission (Updated Story)

By Mary Manning

Fri, Aug 29, 2008 (3:35 p.m.) 

The pilot killed Thursday when his plane crashed in a residential neighborhood had just delivered an aircraft to an organization that flies missionaries for work in Indonesia, his brother told the Sun today.

William J. Leahy Jr., 38, had 20 years of experience in the cockpits of 60 different models of aircraft, said brother Mike Leahy, of Northern California. Leahy had been on 36 mercy missions in his career.

"He was a great all-around guy," Mike Leahy said. "Definitely a family man."

Leahy leaves a wife, Susie, two daughters and a son, his brother said.

Leahy had taken off from the North Las Vegas Airport to fly to Palo Alto at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, but radioed the air control tower that an engine was running rough and that he was returning to the airport. The plane crashed about half a mile south of the runway, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.

 

 

 

link to full story:http://www.lasvegassun.com/...-been-mercy-mission

 

other links: http://www.nowpublic.com/...as-vegas-neighborhood