Somewhere...

Florida news helicopter caught in a rainbow

You have to look real close, but about a third of the way up from the treeline, dead center in the rainbow you can see the helicopter hovering. I could tell by it's behavior pattern that it was a news helicopter, and I simply assumed they were getting footage of the rainbow for a colorful puff piece to fill time in the 6:00 PM news hour.

Since I was conveniently taking photos with my wife's nifty new iPhone from the beach, I figured using a helicopter was an expensive waste of resources.

A few minutes later, using the iPhone as a cell phone, we heard from her father that a plane had crashed and burned at the nearby Venice Municipal Airport, killing the pilot. On the short trip back to his house we drove by the police check point keeping out the curious while off in the distance a firetruck had its aerial ladder fully extended at about a 45 degree angle directly above what little remained of the small, twin engine airplane.

The next day I learned the pilot had successfully taken off but developed engine trouble soon after, declared an emergency, and was desperately trying to land. He was a successful 63-year-old eye doctor who leaves behind a wife and a 16-year-old daughter. Six years from now I will be his age and my oldest daughter will be 16. Not that I need a thread of connectivity to remember this tragic occurrence that briefly interrupted my vacation routine.

Venice Municipal Airport is where Mohamed Atta and another of the 9/11 hijackers trained to pilot airplanes...although unlike the good doctor, they cared little about landing.