(no subject)
More news reports about the crash have been out this week. Some of it is behind the cut. One of the things that has meant the most to me is the report that the victims died on impact, that they did not suffer.
What the papers didn't report is that Walfred and Javier are survived by their three children Josue, Daniel, and Laura. CHOICE has set up an account for them so they can continue school. That will be extremely important for their future.
Javier and Walfred were country directors for CHOICE. They worked full-time to meet basic needs of rural and very isolated villages in Guatemala. Javier dedicated the most time to the work, often traveling to the villages alone to check on them, update what their needs where and see to maintaining progress. Walfred always worried about his safety in traveling alone to the villages. He was all business and knew how to get things done. He coordinated expeditions over three years. The last time I saw Javier was before I moved to Guate last year. He was excited to hear that I was continuing the work, and that I was going back to school. He asked about the bags I was selling from La Laguna. He gave me a hug when he saw me.
Walfred came on the expeditions to cook for the Americans so we wouldn't get sick. She was all heart. I got to know her a little bit in December 2005 when we were in La Laguna and La Laguna Sajonte. She wasn't being paid for her part in CHOICE and when I told her how good the food was, it always brought a smile to her face. At the goodbye dinner on the last night of 2005, she reiterated in heavily accented English to all of us that her payment was to see us enjoying her meals. I gave her the charge of finding me a Latin husband. She had plenty of questions for me about why I wasn't married - typical honesty and curiosity - and was the only one brave enough to ask what my deal was with gay men. We exchanged email addresses before the trip ended. At my request she bought me a map of Guatemala, bien detallado.
I will never forget them.
News reports.
About 150 people gathered in front of the headquarters for CHOICE Humanitarian in West Jordan just before sunset Friday to remember the 11 people, including three from Utah, who were killed when the single-engine plane they were traveling in went down en route to a village where they were to build a school. http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10342950?source=rss
Both legs were broken, his feet dislocated, and in the seats next to him the bodies of his friends.
As Bountiful resident Dan Liljenquist came to after briefly being knocked out, he realized the front of the plane that he and 13 others were in - which had just crashed in Guatemala during an emergency landing - was on fire.
"When I woke up, I just kept saying, 'I'm alive. I'm alive.' And when the plane started on fire, I kept chanting, 'Not today,"' said Liljenquist…
Contrary to other reports given primarily by witnesses and those receiving information second-hand, Liljenquist said it was important for the families of the victims to know that 10 of the passengers were killed instantly and did not suffer. Those people died on impact and were not killed by the subsequent fire and explosion, he said.
Liljenquist was sitting in the rear of the plane next to his good friend John Carter and Javier Rabanales, the Guatemalan director of CHOICE Humanitarian. Carter and Liljenquist were part of the group Focus Services.
The group was flying to Alta Verapez to help build a classroom in the village of Sepamac. About 45 minutes into the flight, Liljenquist noticed the first sign of trouble.
"I noticed the pilot started to flip switches and move very quickly. Then we could smell burning oil. And then, after that, the engine just stopped," he said. "It was kind of surreal. We just stopped. We went from the noise of the plane to just the noise of the wind on the wings. It was surreal."
The plane was still 10,000 to 15,000 feet off the ground at that point, Liljenquist said.
"The pilot panicked a little bit, told us to put our seat belts on and we'd need to make a crash landing," he said.
The area they were over at that time, however, was hilly with lots of trees.
As the plane descended, everyone on board remained quiet and calm. At one point, one of the passengers commented calmly, "If it's our time to go, it's our time to go," Liljenquist said.
It wasn't until they were almost ready to hit the ground that one of the other passengers, one of the survivors, panicked and started yelling, "Oh God, oh God" and began praying out loud.
The last thing Liljenquist remembers was being about 20 feet from the ground, when the wing of the plane clipped a tree, and then he was briefly knocked out as the emergency landing ended in a violent crash.
Liljenquist had sunk as low in his seat as he could, with his legs stretched in front of him and only his shoulders touching the seat. He believes getting that low ultimately saved his life.
"The next thing I remember is waking up, hanging on my side, unbuckling my seat belt," he said.
The two friends he was sitting next to, Carter and Rabanales, were dead. Liljenquist said he came within millimeters of suffering the same fate.
From the front of the plane, he could hear two people calling for help, Liz Johnson and April Jensen.
"The fire started and April screamed. I tried to push off but both my feet were dislocated. I just used my elbows to crawl to the edge of the plane and yell for help," he said. "The plane was so horribly mangled. It was just crumbled. (My wife and I) definitely feel like it's a miracle. It could have been anybody, the way we hit, the way the plane rolled. There just happened to be a hole for me to crawl out. I was really fortunate."
The plane's body had cracked open where Liljenquist was sitting. Two farmers happened to be nearby and heard his cries for help. They went over and pulled him out of the plane, saving his life.
"They pulled me 30 feet. Then the plane exploded and the fire carried across the field. I yelled for help again and they carried me around the corner," Liljenquist said.
Three others were able to get out of the plane, some of them badly burned. Johnson, of West Jordan, was taken to a local hospital where she later died. Liljenquist's ankles and lower legs were shattered. Though he has already had multiple surgeries and faces months of extensive rehab, he is expected to make a full recovery.
"My legs will heal and I'll be OK," he said.
Liljenquist is scheduled to return to Utah today. But his thoughts are with his friends killed in the accident. He couldn't hold back the tears as he recalled how Carter spoke his last words to him.
"I hope the community will rally around those who have lost loved ones. I'm in good shape, considering all things. We'd appreciate anything (the public can do to) help alleviate their suffering," he said.
Liljenquist won a June GOP primary in state Senate District 23, which includes most of the southern portion of Davis County, and is the favorite in the race to replace retiring Sen. Dan Eastman, R-Bountiful.
A trust fund for Javier and Walfred Rabanales has been set up at all Wells Fargo Banks in Utah.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,5143,700254373,00.html
http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/27341224.html has a brief video clip from a newscast
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Aero_Ruta_Maya_crash
Where: Crash in Zacapa, 71 miles east of Guatemala City
When: Sunday about 9:45 a.m. http://tamaircrash.blogspot.com/
Los cadáveres de Mónica Bonilla y Fernando Estrada, piloto y copiloto de la aeronave siniestrada, eran velados ayer en una funeraria de la zona 9, mientras que los cuerpos de los esposos Javier Rabanales y Walfred de Rabanales permanecían en una capilla de la zona 6 capitalina.
Al cierre de la edición, los restos de los siete estadounidenses fallecidos continuaban en la sede del Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Forenses (Inacif), a la espera de ser repatriados.
Familiares y amigos de los esposos Rabanales se presentaron a la funeraria para acompañar a los deudos. Luby de Meléndez, madre de Javier, dijo que la pareja “era entregada a su trabajo; vivían para servir.”
Los Rabanales laboraban con los misioneros del grupo Choice Humanitarian, entidad que hace labor social en el interior. De hecho, el día del accidente, la pareja viajaba junto a un grupo de estadounidenses hacia Izabal, donde construirían casas para personas de escasos recursos.
Ambos cursaban el segundo año de la carrera de Trabajo Social en la Universidad Mariano Gálvez. “Eran sobresalientes y ejemplares”, comentó un catedrático que se acercó a dar el último adiós a sus alumnos. La familia Rabanales Tobar deja tres hijos en la orfandad. http://www.sigloxxi.com/noticias/22682
http://www.telemundo52.com/video/17291748/detail.html Video in Spanish
What the papers didn't report is that Walfred and Javier are survived by their three children Josue, Daniel, and Laura. CHOICE has set up an account for them so they can continue school. That will be extremely important for their future.
Javier and Walfred were country directors for CHOICE. They worked full-time to meet basic needs of rural and very isolated villages in Guatemala. Javier dedicated the most time to the work, often traveling to the villages alone to check on them, update what their needs where and see to maintaining progress. Walfred always worried about his safety in traveling alone to the villages. He was all business and knew how to get things done. He coordinated expeditions over three years. The last time I saw Javier was before I moved to Guate last year. He was excited to hear that I was continuing the work, and that I was going back to school. He asked about the bags I was selling from La Laguna. He gave me a hug when he saw me.
Walfred came on the expeditions to cook for the Americans so we wouldn't get sick. She was all heart. I got to know her a little bit in December 2005 when we were in La Laguna and La Laguna Sajonte. She wasn't being paid for her part in CHOICE and when I told her how good the food was, it always brought a smile to her face. At the goodbye dinner on the last night of 2005, she reiterated in heavily accented English to all of us that her payment was to see us enjoying her meals. I gave her the charge of finding me a Latin husband. She had plenty of questions for me about why I wasn't married - typical honesty and curiosity - and was the only one brave enough to ask what my deal was with gay men. We exchanged email addresses before the trip ended. At my request she bought me a map of Guatemala, bien detallado.
I will never forget them.
News reports.
About 150 people gathered in front of the headquarters for CHOICE Humanitarian in West Jordan just before sunset Friday to remember the 11 people, including three from Utah, who were killed when the single-engine plane they were traveling in went down en route to a village where they were to build a school. http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10342950?source=rss
Both legs were broken, his feet dislocated, and in the seats next to him the bodies of his friends.
As Bountiful resident Dan Liljenquist came to after briefly being knocked out, he realized the front of the plane that he and 13 others were in - which had just crashed in Guatemala during an emergency landing - was on fire.
"When I woke up, I just kept saying, 'I'm alive. I'm alive.' And when the plane started on fire, I kept chanting, 'Not today,"' said Liljenquist…
Contrary to other reports given primarily by witnesses and those receiving information second-hand, Liljenquist said it was important for the families of the victims to know that 10 of the passengers were killed instantly and did not suffer. Those people died on impact and were not killed by the subsequent fire and explosion, he said.
Liljenquist was sitting in the rear of the plane next to his good friend John Carter and Javier Rabanales, the Guatemalan director of CHOICE Humanitarian. Carter and Liljenquist were part of the group Focus Services.
The group was flying to Alta Verapez to help build a classroom in the village of Sepamac. About 45 minutes into the flight, Liljenquist noticed the first sign of trouble.
"I noticed the pilot started to flip switches and move very quickly. Then we could smell burning oil. And then, after that, the engine just stopped," he said. "It was kind of surreal. We just stopped. We went from the noise of the plane to just the noise of the wind on the wings. It was surreal."
The plane was still 10,000 to 15,000 feet off the ground at that point, Liljenquist said.
"The pilot panicked a little bit, told us to put our seat belts on and we'd need to make a crash landing," he said.
The area they were over at that time, however, was hilly with lots of trees.
As the plane descended, everyone on board remained quiet and calm. At one point, one of the passengers commented calmly, "If it's our time to go, it's our time to go," Liljenquist said.
It wasn't until they were almost ready to hit the ground that one of the other passengers, one of the survivors, panicked and started yelling, "Oh God, oh God" and began praying out loud.
The last thing Liljenquist remembers was being about 20 feet from the ground, when the wing of the plane clipped a tree, and then he was briefly knocked out as the emergency landing ended in a violent crash.
Liljenquist had sunk as low in his seat as he could, with his legs stretched in front of him and only his shoulders touching the seat. He believes getting that low ultimately saved his life.
"The next thing I remember is waking up, hanging on my side, unbuckling my seat belt," he said.
The two friends he was sitting next to, Carter and Rabanales, were dead. Liljenquist said he came within millimeters of suffering the same fate.
From the front of the plane, he could hear two people calling for help, Liz Johnson and April Jensen.
"The fire started and April screamed. I tried to push off but both my feet were dislocated. I just used my elbows to crawl to the edge of the plane and yell for help," he said. "The plane was so horribly mangled. It was just crumbled. (My wife and I) definitely feel like it's a miracle. It could have been anybody, the way we hit, the way the plane rolled. There just happened to be a hole for me to crawl out. I was really fortunate."
The plane's body had cracked open where Liljenquist was sitting. Two farmers happened to be nearby and heard his cries for help. They went over and pulled him out of the plane, saving his life.
"They pulled me 30 feet. Then the plane exploded and the fire carried across the field. I yelled for help again and they carried me around the corner," Liljenquist said.
Three others were able to get out of the plane, some of them badly burned. Johnson, of West Jordan, was taken to a local hospital where she later died. Liljenquist's ankles and lower legs were shattered. Though he has already had multiple surgeries and faces months of extensive rehab, he is expected to make a full recovery.
"My legs will heal and I'll be OK," he said.
Liljenquist is scheduled to return to Utah today. But his thoughts are with his friends killed in the accident. He couldn't hold back the tears as he recalled how Carter spoke his last words to him.
"I hope the community will rally around those who have lost loved ones. I'm in good shape, considering all things. We'd appreciate anything (the public can do to) help alleviate their suffering," he said.
Liljenquist won a June GOP primary in state Senate District 23, which includes most of the southern portion of Davis County, and is the favorite in the race to replace retiring Sen. Dan Eastman, R-Bountiful.
A trust fund for Javier and Walfred Rabanales has been set up at all Wells Fargo Banks in Utah.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,5143,700254373,00.html
http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/27341224.html has a brief video clip from a newscast
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Aero_Ruta_Maya_crash
Where: Crash in Zacapa, 71 miles east of Guatemala City
When: Sunday about 9:45 a.m. http://tamaircrash.blogspot.com/
Los cadáveres de Mónica Bonilla y Fernando Estrada, piloto y copiloto de la aeronave siniestrada, eran velados ayer en una funeraria de la zona 9, mientras que los cuerpos de los esposos Javier Rabanales y Walfred de Rabanales permanecían en una capilla de la zona 6 capitalina.
Al cierre de la edición, los restos de los siete estadounidenses fallecidos continuaban en la sede del Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Forenses (Inacif), a la espera de ser repatriados.
Familiares y amigos de los esposos Rabanales se presentaron a la funeraria para acompañar a los deudos. Luby de Meléndez, madre de Javier, dijo que la pareja “era entregada a su trabajo; vivían para servir.”
Los Rabanales laboraban con los misioneros del grupo Choice Humanitarian, entidad que hace labor social en el interior. De hecho, el día del accidente, la pareja viajaba junto a un grupo de estadounidenses hacia Izabal, donde construirían casas para personas de escasos recursos.
Ambos cursaban el segundo año de la carrera de Trabajo Social en la Universidad Mariano Gálvez. “Eran sobresalientes y ejemplares”, comentó un catedrático que se acercó a dar el último adiós a sus alumnos. La familia Rabanales Tobar deja tres hijos en la orfandad. http://www.sigloxxi.com/noticias/22682
http://www.telemundo52.com/video/17291748/detail.html Video in Spanish