Victim's relatives coping with loss after Sunday accident
By The Associated Press | Posted: Monday, September 22, 2008 12:00 am
Associated Press
KENOSHA - The pilot of a helicopter that crashed into a Kenosha house, narrowly missing a family of five asleep inside, was certified as a pilot in 2006, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said Monday.
Pilot Alan Sapko, a 54-year-old Sturtevant businessman, and passenger Joan Anzalone, 45, a Mount Pleasant resident, died in the predawn Sunday crash into the center of a house in a subdivision near Kenosha Regional Airport, authorities said.
Sapko was the president and CEO of Sapko International of Sturtevant,
a clothing manufacturer, and Anzalone was the vice president at United Construction Corp. in Racine and an interior designer.
The two were friends for at least 10 years and dated on-again, off-again, said Anzalone's brother, David Cecchini of Racine. She flew with Sapko occasionally, but not too often, Cecchini said.
She also enjoyed traveling, including trips to the Bahamas, which Sapko joined her on at least once, Cecchini said. But family always came first, her brother said. She leaves behind three children.
"She was always bubbly," Cecchini said. "Always giving people a helping hand."
The accident came as a shock to the family.
"It was an extreme shock. You don't expect that," Cecchini said. "She will be extremely, greatly missed."
When the crash happened, Noel and Carla Wilson and their children, 9, 6 and 2, were sleeping in bedrooms on either side of the middle staircase when the helicopter plunged through the roof.
"From my understanding, they have not even so much as a scratch. It is unbelievable," said Lt. Edo Maccari of the Kenosha Police
Department. "It went right down the center of the house. I guess the bedrooms are off to the side. The way it went in was perfect."
Helicopter parts came within feet of the sleeping family.
"It was God's hand in this," Carla Wilson said in published reports. The family did not immediately return a telephone message left Monday by The Associated Press.
Witnesses reported hearing the helicopter's engine sputtering moments before the crash at about 5:30 a.m. in some early morning fog.
Sapko owned the helicopter through a company called Midwestern Air Services of Kenosha, FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said.
Tim Johnson, office manager for Midwestern Helicopter LLC of Kenosha, which sells helicopters and trains pilots, said Sapko received flight training from Midwestern Helicopter about three years ago and got his first pilot license after that training.
Sapko's 2006 four-seat Robinson R44 has a range of about 300 miles and a cruising speed of 120 mph, Johnson said.
Stephanie Brien of The Journal Times contributed to this report.