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Is not flying safe?
Plane enthusiast dies in freak accident
By Heather Ratcliffe ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 10/24/2006 Mark Birke never pursued a pilot's license because his wife worried about his safety. So he became an airplane enthusiast. He hung model jets in their Webster Groves home. He named his dogs after planes. "Airplane" was among his son's first words. But even though Birke was grounded, his death was linked to his love of aircraft. A car hit Birke on Thursday morning as he and a crowd of tourists snapped photos of jets taking off from Eglin Air Force Base in northwest Florida. Birke, 31, who lost a leg in the impact, died at a hospital in Pensacola, Fla., the next evening. The driver, an airman attached to the 96th Medical Group at the base, also was killed. Another tourist suffered minor injuries, officials said. Advertisement Birke and his father, Charles Birke of Hazelwood, were visiting the base with the F-4 Phantom II Society, an airplane enthusiast club. This was the third year they pair had joined a similar tour. Mark Birke, a purchasing specialist at a St. Louis steel company, first learned about planes from his father, an aircraft mechanic for Boeing. Mark Birke decided to join the club after his brother, David, who also loved planes, died five years ago of cancer. "He wanted a way to honor his brother and have something he could do with his dad to keep him active," said his wife, Angela Birke. Mark Birke drove to Florida with relatives for a vacation last week. He left his wife and son in Tallahassee with family while he and his father joined the Phantom convention, a five-hour drive away. They were among 110 tourists who gathered at Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City for the convention. They rode in charter buses to Eglin, near Fort Walton Beach, and were unloading near the airfield when the accident happened about 9:40 a.m. Thursday. Air Force officials say Brett A. Jakubowski, of Arvada, Colo., swerved onto the grassy area where the tour group had gathered, plowing into the two victims. His car returned to the roadway and crossed lanes into oncoming traffic. The airman then hit a fuel truck head-on, according to a release from the air base. Angela Birke said she would remember her husband as a clever, caring man who was always creative. "Our house is full of furniture he made. Whatever we needed, he just created it," she said. "He could do anything with his hands." The Birkes met at a St. Louis University High School mixer when they were teenagers. They married five years ago. Their son, Miles, is 1. "He never was happy unless he was making someone else happy," Angela Birke said. "It's amazing how many people relied on him to make them laugh." Mark Birke enjoyed punk rock music, drawing cartoons and playing the guitar for his son at bedtime. Angela Birke said she didn't want her husband to become a pilot because his cousin had died in a plane crash. "He could hear a jet and tell you what kind it was just from the sound," she said. "But he never flew." -- Gene Seibel Tales of Flight - http://pad39a.com/gene/tales.html Because I fly, I envy no one. |
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