Family: Mechanical failure caused crash

Mary Manning and Dan Kulin

Monday, Dec. 29, 2003 | 11:25 a.m.

Relatives and friends of the six people who died in the Christmas Day plane crash at North Las Vegas Airport believe mechanical problems caused the crash.

While federal investigators began piecing together the wreckage of the Beechcraft A-36 Bonanza in a hangar at the North Las Vegas Airport over the weekend, friends and family mourned the loss of three generations of a close-knit family.

They said they don't believe pilot error is possible because the man who was flying the plane, 68-year-old Henry Waldman, was a retired Air Force colonel and a Vietnam-era fighter pilot with 30 years of experience as a pilot.

Waldman and his wife, Vivienne, of Redondo Beach, Calif., frequently visited Steven and Susan Maini and their children, Jack, 12, and Michele, 6, at their Summerlin home, Waldman's son, Paul, said Sunday. All six perished in Thursday's fiery crash.

The Waldmans were the parents of Susan Maini.

"He was just visiting," California resident Paul Waldman said of his father, "He spent a lot of time with his grandkids."

At least once a month, the Waldmans came to Las Vegas, and that's why Henry Waldman bought the six-seat aircraft less than four months ago and leased hangar space for it at the North Las Vegas Airport, his son said.

Family friend Craig Walters said Henry Waldman was even being cautious Thursday with their destination. He had had changed the flight plan Thursday because of concerns about the winter storm that was moving into Southern Nevada on Thursday, Walters said. Instead of the Grand Canyon, the group had been heading out for a shorter trip, to Laughlin, Walters said.

Steven Maini, 42, was president of Maini Distributing, a company that supplies soap and other products to local hotels and restaurants.

Teacher Susan Vex gave both children music lessons while they attended the Hebrew Academy and knew them well.

"Michele was the sweetest little girl," Vex said. "She was a little shy. She loved to make other kids laugh."

Jack loved to play soccer and chess. He was very active with the youth group at Temple Beth Sholom, Vex said.

Michele was attending Lummis Elementary School and Jack Becker Middle School.

Susan Maini, 39, was an accountant with the Las Vegas Department of Finance and Business Services who could always be counted on, friends said.

"I could call Susan and she would always do it," Vex said, recalling an evening prayer service called Minyan that was led by Maini last year.

The family came to the temple every Friday night for services, and Jack loved to lead the services, Vex said.

Michele was looking forward to study the piano in private lessons with Vex in the spring, she said.

"They were an adorable family," Vex said.

Michele's best friend, Rachel Hjerpe, also 6, moved with her family to Santa Rosa, Calif., in August and her mother said the two girls had been close for four years.

"What a heartbreak it was leaving them," Sharon Hjerpe, Rachel's mother, said. "I'm going to miss her so much. She and Rachel had formed a deep relationship. It was really a strong bond for someone so young."

Rachel's bedroom is filled with photos of Michele and a picture she painted as a going away present for her friend.

Michele loved to swim, Hjerpe said. "She didn't have daily access to a pool and she'd come over and was so proud of her progress," Hjerpe said.

When Michele got a cocker spaniel puppy about a year ago, she invited Rachel over to see it.

As for Susan Maini, "She was one of my closest friends when we were in Las Vegas," Hjerpe said. "She had such common sense, she would solve things in simple ways. I'd always say, 'Why didn't I think of that?"'

Dawn Lev, whose son Danny played soccer with Jack, said that Michele played with her 4-year-old son, Jacob. "She would always talk to Jacob and say hello to him in the halls of the Hebrew Academy," Lev said.

Lev learned about the tragedy Saturday night. "My son went to a yearbook to see the pictures," she said. "Some of the photos, they had their arms around each other."

Jack Hausner is a Spruce Mountain Way neighbor of the Mainis and said it gave him an "eerie feeling" to look out at the family's vehicles parked in their driveway.

"You're looking at three generations wiped out," Hausner said. "We lost a possible doctor, a possible scientist, a possible teacher, we will never know."

Airport neighbor and airplane mechanic Raymond Alvarez came to see the wreckage firsthand Friday afternoon before it was moved to the hangar about 3 p.m.

Alvarez, 47, said his curiosity drew him and his 8-year-old son Aaron to the accident scene.

"It's sad, especially this time of year," Alvarez said. "I'm sure there were family expecting them somewhere."

From his California home, Paul Waldman, the pilot's son, said Sunday that "it seems there was a mechanical problem with the plane."

The official cause of the plane crash probably won't be known for up to a year, but a former airplane accident investigator said that based on information reported by witnesses there's one theory that seems plausible.

The crash that killed the four adults and two children was probably caused by a stall that left the plane without enough power to turn around, said G. Robert Deiro, who managed the North Las Vegas Airport in the 1960s and then was director of aviation facilities for billionaire Howard Hughes. He was also director of Aviation Safety Board for the Nevada Safety Council.

"It's a real tragedy," Deiro, who estimated he has investigated 150 airplane accidents, said Sunday night. "There's been too many crashes."

Deiro, who has been a pilot since 1957, said that what witnesses described -- the plane shuddering before falling into a concrete culvert at the airport -- leads him to believe the plane stalled. A stall occurs when air no longer flows smoothly over and under the wings, he said.

"It was a classic stall-spin accident," Deiro said, meaning the plane fell almost straight into the earth. The pilot might have crash-landed and saved the passengers by flying straight ahead, he said.

"At that moment, he became a passenger to his own doom, since he stalled it so low," Deiro said. "This type of crash is so stunning to people when you lose six people."

While federal investigators will determine how the accident unfolded, the exact cause could be mechanical from a "catastrophic failure" of the engine, from problems at takeoff related to weather including rain and gusty winds, from pilot error or a combination of events, Deiro said.

"It was an unsurvivable accident," Deiro said. "Flying is an activity that has a risk."

Howard Plagens, a senior air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said it could take nine months to a year to complete the investigation into the crash that occurred about 1:20 p.m. Thursday after the pilot radioed the North Las Vegas Airport control tower that the plane was having trouble flying.

A preliminary accident report should be completed in five days, Plagens said. Two of the victims were thrown from the plane.

The safety board takes so long to complete an investigation because it has a backlog of accidents to investigate, Plagens said.

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