Love of sky brought group together

Sky diving made them family.

The nine sky divers based in Snohomish died along with their pilot after the Cessna 208 Grand Caravan they were in “fell out of the sky” and crashed into the rugged terrain of the Cascade Range west of Yakima.

Cecil Elsner, 20, Lake Stevens

Cecil Elsner, 20, was a thoughtful, upbeat and adventurous young man, admired for the way he balanced quiet confidence and book smarts with athletic ability.

The Western Washington University student from Lake Stevens backed up some of those descriptions in his own words in an essay he posted his MySpace page.

He described skydiving as an enlightening escape from a world of turmoil and traffic jams.

“You see the slightest curve of this massive globe looking off into the horizon and get some sense of your place in it all,” he wrote.

Kendra Anyan, 20, grew up with him in Lake Stevens and was a classmate from kindergarten through high school. She traveled to Greece with Elsner and other students the summer before their senior year.

Elsner had a “zest for life” and loved sky diving, travel and sunsets, she said. He lived every day without hesitation.

“I find too many people live too carefully because they’re afraid of ending it too soon,” said Anyan, who is now a student at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande. “Cecil lived every day doing something that he loved.”

Elsner’s high school psychology teacher, Steve Berg, remembered him as an initially quiet student, but someone he quickly got to know well. Berg wrote a letter of recommendation when Elsner applied for college, and later wrote a letter on his behalf when he sought to have a college psychology requirement waived.

Berg said Elsner was mature beyond his years, taking a logical, analytical approach to psychology projects and discussions.

“He was doing college-level work in high school,” Berg said.

Elsner’s friends, in the sky diving community, including a young Snohomish pilot in training, posted several messages sharing grief and disbelief on his MySpace page following news of the tragedy.

No one at his parents’ home answered the phone Tuesday. Elsner had a twin brother, Trevor.

Elsner’s Web page includes a video posting of a base jump that he and friends made in July off of the 370-foot tall Hoffstadt Creek Bridge near Mount St. Helens. He was accompanied by Landon Atkin, who also died in Sunday’s crash. The video clip titled “Five Friends, 3 Parachutes, 1 Bridge” is set to upbeat rock and shows the friends diving head-first off of the bridge with parachutes in hand.

— Reporter David Chircop

Phil Kibler, 47, Snohomish

Phil Kibler lived amid the sky diving community, but his place was in the cockpit of an airplane.

Kibler, 47, discovered his love for flying after spending years working outdoors in parks and forestry. He loved the sense of freedom, and seeing the land in a way he couldn’t from hiking trails.

“I rode on Phil’s planes many times, and he was a very safe and capable pilot,” said Lena Marie Morrill, a friend of Kibler. “I am confident he did everything he could.”

Kibler moved to Snoho­mish earlier this year to shuttle sky divers on jumping trips.

Many sky divers enjoyed flying with him. Almost two weeks ago, Hollie Rasberry, who also died in the crash, wrote on Kibler’s MySpace page that she was excited for their upcoming trip.

Before moving to Snohomish County, Kibler spent the summer of 2006 working at Skydive Lost Prairie, a sky diving company in Montana. Fred Sand, who owns the company, said Kibler quickly earned his trust. He even asked Kibler to watch over his house and look after his children when he needed to take short vacations.

“As far as his pilot skills, he was great,” Sand said. “He did an excellent job for us when he was here. He was a very likable guy, very easy going, but still very professional as far as his flying.”

Kibler loved fishing, hiking and camping. He tried sky diving during his days at Skydive Lost Prairie, and again in August during a brief return visit.

“He enjoyed his jump, but his primary passion was flying, so he devoted himself to that,” Sand said.

Kibler and those who died Monday will be missed, Sand said.

“This is a very trying time for all of us,” he said.

— Reporter Scott Pesznecker

Landon Atkin, 20, Snohomish

In 20 years of life, Landon Atkin plunged from planes, raced down mountains on a snowboard and battered drums for his pop-punk band.

Yet that’s not how Karen Siebrass will remember him.

Atkin was the clean-cut, sometimes quiet boy in her Web programming class at Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center who went out his way to make sure her feelings weren’t hurt.

How far out of his way? More than 20 miles.

Atkin had put up some posters on the Sno-Isle walls promoting a video game developer. The racy image drew a complaint and Atkin had to take it down.

He drove back to Snoho­mish High School, only to turn around and drive back to the skills center in south Everett.

He came back to apologize.

“He felt bad I might get in trouble over him,” she said. “I have been a teacher for more than 25 years and I never had a student do anything like that just out of thoughtfulness for me.”

Atkin graduated from Snohomish High School in 2005 and was attending Cascadia Community College in Bothell.

On his MySpace page, he listed his father as one of his heroes along with Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and other musicians. Playing drums for his three-member band, Rumor Has It, was a life passion.

At Harvey Field in Snoho­mish, Atkin worked as a parachute packer, sometimes from early morning to late at night. He aspired to become a sky diving instructor.

Staci Boyd grew up with Atkin in the Clearview area and went to the same school from kindergarten to graduation.

In some ways, he never changed in that he “was always friendly,” she said.

“He definitely lived life to the fullest and loved the skies,” Boyd said.

— Reporter Eric Stevick

Bryan Jones, 34, Redmond

Bryan Jones was humble, quiet, even shy.

But at the end of his work day, the Microsoft employee often hopped on his motorcycle and headed to Harvey Field in Snohomish for some late-afternoon sky diving.

“He was pretty dedicated,” said Shawn Starr, a Skydive Snohomish instructor. “He would sit in traffic for hours just to make one jump at sunset.”

Jones, 34, of Redmond had more than 1,000 jumps under his belt.

“He loved the sport,” said his friend, Ryan Shipley of Lake Stevens. “He was more of a serious guy about it. He knew what he was doing and did it well.”

Jones helped lead the Seattle Skydivers club, and he worked during the summer of 2006 as an instructor at Skydive Snohomish.

Usually, he just went sky diving for fun, Starr said. He made friends with jumpers who came through Harvey Field. Once, he bought plane tickets for sky divers he knew in Hawaii so they could jump together in Snohomish.

“He was a humble person, but he was definitely always up for helping out,” Starr said. “He was very giving and generous.”

— Reporters Scott Pesznecker and Bill Sheets

Andrew Smith, 20, Lake Stevens

Andrew Smith loved sky diving so much, he had wings tattooed from his ankles to his calves.

The 20-year-old Lake Stevens man spouted sky diving statistics and tried to convince everyone, from the clerk at the sandwich shop to friends afraid of heights, to take a dive, said his girlfriend, Julianne Hezlep.

Smith attended Lake Stevens High School with the class of 2005 and had an identical twin brother, Alex. Smith was working and training to become an engineer on the Victoria Clipper. An athlete, he ran, played soccer and wrestled.

He flew to Idaho last weekend to sky dive and visit Hezlep, 18, at Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa. Hezlep spent the weekend hanging out and enjoying a campfire with Smith and his sky diving friends.

“They died doing what they loved,” she said. “They all had smiles on their faces. They were happy and we need to be happy that they were happy.”

Hezlep watched their plane take off from Boise on Sunday. While he was on board the plane, Smith sent Hezlep a text message that said, “I love you to the end of the world.”

She was waiting for Smith, her boyfriend of almost a year, to call her on Sunday night.

“I waited by that phone and I didn’t hear anything,” she said Tuesday, crying and hugging her mother, Daphne. “I called him at 10 and I called him at 11 and I called him at 12 and I called him at 1 and no one answered … I fell asleep staring at my computer screen.”

Hezlep woke up Monday morning, turned on the television and didn’t see anything about a plane crash. She thought everything must be OK, but she tried calling Smith again and he still didn’t answer so she called Skydive Snoho­mish. Someone there told her the plane was missing.

Until that point, she had tried not to worry.

“You don’t worry when you are dating a sky diver,” she said. “They do it and they are OK.”

Brent Barnes, Smith’s wrestling coach at Lake Stevens High School, described the tall, lanky young man as a “raw athlete” who worked hard and was well-liked, in spite of a wild streak. Smith won some big matches at a state wrestling competition when competing at the junior varsity level, and wrestled varsity his senior year.

“He was extremely personable,” Barnes said.

— Reporter Kaitlin Manry

Jeff Ross, 28, Snohomish

Jeff Ross had only been sky diving for a year, but he couldn’t get enough of the life.

Ross, 28, could often be found at Skydive Snohomish, packing parachutes to supplement his income as a shift manager at an area pharmacy. On windy days, he helped jumpers collapse their parachutes as they landed so they wouldn’t be dragged across the ground.

“I definitely trusted him when he was out there,” said Shawn Starr, a Skydive Snohomish instructor. “I knew he’d be out there to catch me.”

Ross wanted to be a sky diving instructor, said Starr. After only a year in the sport, he was already starting to give advice to other jumpers.

“He was really into it, he was out there as much as he could be,” Starr said.

Ross graduated from high school in Palmdale, Calif., in 1996. On his Myspace page, he jokingly talks about the world’s shortage of pirates.

He always had a good sense of humor, Starr said.

“He was very friendly to everybody, he had more of an outgoing personality,” Starr said. “He had the gift of the gab, he could strike up a conversation with just about anybody.”

Sky diver Ryan Shipley, 32, of Lake Stevens said his next jump will be different because Ross, his friend, won’t be there to pack his parachute.

“My next jump is going to be very emotional,” Shipley said.

— Reporter Scott Pesznecker

Hollie Rasberry, 24, Bellingham

The Bellingham woman will be missed by her “Billy buddies” at Billy McHale’s Restaurant.

Hollie Rasberry, 24, was from Wenatchee and had been working at the Bellingham restaurant for four years, pursing a two-year transfer degree at Whatcom Community College for the past year.

The restaurant’s owner, Kristy Knopp, said Rasberry fell in love with sky diving after first trying it a year ago.

“She picked up every extra shift she could just so she could go sky diving because it was so expensive,” Knopp said. “She’s such a fun-loving person.”

Her co-workers, or “Billy buddies,” as they call themselves, set up a memorial poster board at the restaurant, said Shawn Valeos, a bartender who often worked with Rasberry.

Valeos, who often joked with Rasberry that she was his favorite, noticed her passion for sky diving.

“It’s all she talks about now,” Valeos said. “It is such a huge part of her life right now. This trip came up last minute and she was really excited to go with the group she’d been jumping with.”

Her boyfriend, 25-year-old Daniel Hartwick, also works at the restaurant. He was traveling back from the White Pass area Tuesday after spending time with Rasberry’s family and was not available for comment.

“It’s a close-knit group here at Billy’s,” Valeos said. “We call it our Billy family, buddies.”

— Reporter Amy Harder, The Bellingham Herald

Michelle Barker, 22, Kirkland

Michelle Barker, 22, grew up in Boise, Idaho, and moved to Kirkland in May. She lived for adventure.

Barker worked rigging up jumpers at Skydive Snohomish and was studying to be a certified parachute rigger, someone who packs the chutes.

“She loved the sky diving community. It was her home,” said Heather Shipley, of Lake Stevens whose, husband, Ryan, jumped with Barker.

“She was part of the family. You walk in the door you’re family.”

Barker was fun and sarcastic, she added.

“She would definitely put it to you straight,” Ryan Shipley said. “She was up front, very direct. You couldn’t BS her.”

A graudate of Centennial High School in Boise, Barker was remembered by her high school counselor as a good student and an all-American girl.

“She was always, always the very adventurous type,” Carol Joplin said. “She wanted to have as many adventures as she could.”

Connie Runyan trained Barker for her job as a guest service representative at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise. They worked together for about two years.

“Her smile was one of her best qualities,” Runyan said. “She could make anyone laugh. She was so bubbly and full of life. All she talked about was sky diving.”

The flight was a reunion trip for Barker, who used to work at the Star Skydiving Center, skydiver Tom Erlebach of Star said.

— Reporters Bill Sheets, The Herald, and Bethann Stewart, The Idaho Statesman

Casey Craig, 30, Bothell

Casey Craig worked for his family business installing and cleaning carpet and upholstery.

He was an important member of the group of people who considered Skydiving Snoho­mish part of their family, said Heather Shipley of Lake Stevens.

“He was such a fun guy, so outgoing. He had such an energy about him,” she said. “He could always make you laugh.”

Heather Shipley said Casey Craig was a favorite of her two elementary school-aged children. She said she was struggling Tuesday to find a way to tell them he was gone.

­— Reporter Bill Sheets

Ralph Abdo, 27, Issaquah

Ralph Abdo, 27, was a program manager at Microsoft, where he worked for the past seven years, a Microsoft spokesperson told a Seattle newspaper.

Abdo’s next door neighbor in an Issaquah cul-de-sac, Gregory Brake, said Abdo moved to the neighborhood less than a year ago. Abdo was an active outdoorsman who had to temporarily give up windsurfing earlier this year because of a leg injury, he said.

— Reporter David Chircop