Daniel Lauritsen
The pilot came from Florida to offer a 31st-birthday flight. The plane crashed near Rochester.
The plane ride that killed Daniel Lauritsen and two friends from Florida last week was intended as a birthday gift for the Eagan man.
Lauritsen, 30, died along with a Florida couple in a plane crash last week.
The flight that ended in a fatal crash near the Rochester International Airport just after midnight Wednesday was a gift from the pilot, Christopher Livingston, 29, of Ocala, to Lauritsen, said his mother, Nancie Lauritsen. The two men had been friends since they met through an Internet-based science club 13 years ago, she said.
Livingston came up to Minnesota last week to "take Danny for a couple of plane rides" for his birthday, Nancie Lauritsen said. Her son, who worked at a Twin Cities science lab, would have turned 31 on June 26.
"The three kids had been at my house for dinner [Wednesday] night," she said. "I was actually invited to go on the plane, but I declined."
She said they left her house in Cottage Grove for Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie for an 8:30 flight around the Twin Cities.
"Wednesday was supposed to be a sunset ride," said Nancie Lauritsen. "They were going to cruise over Lake Superior on Thursday."
She said a "little red flag went up" when she hadn't received a call from her son by midnight. The plane crashed a few minutes before midnight, shortly after the pilot reported engine trouble to the air tower at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. "I put the news on at 5 p.m. [Thursday], and what do you think I saw?" his mother said, recounting that the evening news detailed that two men and a woman were in the downed plane.
Nancie Lauritsen said she sent in her son's dental records and spoke with the medical examiner Monday.
Livingston flew to Minnesota Tuesday from DeLand, Fla., with his girlfriend, Heather Nichols, 28, of Clermont, Fla., and two other people who were not part of the fly-around
No comments:
Post a Comment