A California family’s trip ended in tragedy after a small plane crashed near Fresno, killing a mother and her two young sons and leaving her husband critically injured, The Post has learned.
Danna Eady, 41, a flight instructor from Auberry, died alongside her sons, 10-year-old Pavel and 13-year-old Remus, when the aircraft came down Saturday on a hilltop close to Sierra Sky Park Airport in Fresno.
Her husband, Craig, was also aboard the plane and survived the crash, but friends said he sustained severe burns and major injuries. Danna is also survived by her two other children, Lucien, 17, and Felicity, 18.
A SupportNow fundraising page described the difficult recovery ahead for Craig, saying he “now faces a long and difficult road of surgeries, rehabilitation, medical care, and recovery,” with treatment expected to last at least six months and possibly much longer.
The support page, created by family friend Julie Lovell, says donations will be used to help cover Craig’s continuing medical treatment, the family’s everyday household needs and other unforeseen expenses following the devastating crash.
Nick Wilcox, owner of Soar Paso flight school in Paso Robles, remembered Eady as both a close friend and a fellow flight instructor. He said the two had flown together many times, and that Eady had even taken his daughter up in the air.
“She was a very special soul,” Wilcox told The Post.
According to Wilcox, the family had been traveling to an airshow when the plane went down.
Wilcox said Danna was deeply involved in the Fresno-area aviation community, where she worked as a flight instructor at Reedley College and served as president of the local Experimental Aircraft Association chapter.
Her impact was evident after the crash, he said, by numerous current and former students wishing her well. “She was a very large presence in the Fresno flying community,” Wilcox said.
But beyond aviation, Wilcox remembered Danna for her adventurous and outgoing personality. He described her as “bubbly, outgoing, a free spirit” who loved being barefoot, eating ice cream, traveling and having new experiences.
Flying was Danna’s passion, Wilcox said. Although she had only become a pilot in recent years, Wilcox said she quickly accumulated thousands of flight hours and earned numerous ratings.
“Her dream was to fly,” Wilcox said. “She died doing what she absolutely loved.”
The crash happened in northwest Fresno near the San Joaquin River just before 2 p.m. Saturday, sending emergency crews scrambling to the scene.
Tony Botti, a public information officer for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, told The California Post authorities got the call around 1:50 p.m. about a plane crash near the far north end of Blythe Avenue, close to Sierra Sky Park.
Firefighters, cops and sheriff’s deputies arrived to find plane wreckage on a bluff near the river as flames tore across a nearby hillside.
Eady and her husband were rushed to a hospital in critical condition at the time. The two sons, however, were declared deceased at the scene.
What caused the plane to go down remains unclear as investigators begin piecing together the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are both involved, Botti said, with the NTSB taking the lead in determining what went wrong.
A secured perimeter was thrown around the wreckage Saturday to keep people out and give crews room to work.
“Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames and prevent them from spreading onto the properties of nearby homes,” the Fresno Count Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
