SNOHOMISH — What was supposed to be the last nice day of the year became what Ivy Green now calls the last nice day of her life.
She finally agreed to go sky-diving with her brothers when summer was winding down last year.
She remembers how happy they were that day.
Less than a month later, Green’s little brother Casey Craig died in what would be the deadliest plane crash in America in 2007.
He was one of nine sky divers and a pilot who were on a plane on Oct. 7, 2007, headed to Shelton, northwest of Olympia, after a weekend of jumping at a base near Boise, Idaho. They were all a part of Skydive Snohomish, a parachutist club based in eastern Snohomish County.
When the Cessna 208 Grand Caravan went off the radar and failed to arrive on time, rescue crews started searching the Cascades mountains. They found the wreckage Oct. 8 near White Pass.
No one aboard survived.
Those who died became known to the sky-diving community as Our 10.
They were: Casey Craig, 30, Bothell; Ralph Abdo, 27, Issaquah; Landon Atkin, 20, Snohomish; Michelle Barker, 22, Kirkland; Cecil Elsner, 20, Lake Stevens; Bryan Jones, 34, Redmond; pilot Phil Kibler, 47, Snohomish; Hollie Rasberry, 24, Bellingham; Jeff Ross, 28, Snohomish; Andrew Smith, 20, Lake Stevens.
For the past year, families of Our 10 have coped with their grief by reaching out to one another. Many of them call each other and get together for dinner. Some have visited the site of the crash. And some of the relatives have honored the memory of their loved ones by going on sky dives.
They’ve also filed a lawsuit against Cessna Aircraft Co., saying they are determined to discover what went wrong.
It’s been a year now, and Green, 33, who has moved into her brother’s house in Bothell, said she misses Casey Craig like crazy.
“Every day is different, and every day I cry. You just have to learn how to deal with it.”
Jaima Ritchey, 27, who lives in Oregon, deals with her grief by learning about the people who died with her sister Hollie Rasberry. She reads through their MySpace profiles, clicking through their pictures and talking to their families. She also reads her sister’s profile, where people continue to post comments.
“I love it when people write on her MySpace. It shows that she’s not forgotten. It’s a reminder that I’m not the only one who (misses her).”
Allison Long, 21, of Everett, lost her cousin Cecil Elsner in the crash: “My cousin was my best friend.”
She has been around sky divers long enough to know that the sport creates bonds among people.
“Being with them is like being with family. You feel alive. You share such an unfamiliar interest; it’s a very strong connection,” Long said.
When Long finally saved enough money and took her first jump this past June, one of the reasons was to deal with the loss of her cousin.
“Being up there, I wish I had done it earlier,” she said. “It’s amazing. You can’t help it but be happy when you are there.”
Flying toward Earth was one of the most real experiences she ever had, Long said. Perhaps the only thing that felt more real was the night of the crash.
“It was so quick. When the one person who can make you happy is not there any more, it really makes you see how much life can change.”
Green said her experience over the past year has been similar. “I lost a brother, but I gained so many siblings. We all just bonded.”
Most of the families of Our 10 became close, Green said. They have dinner together once in a while and exchange phone calls.
Heidi Barker and Rich Williams live in Boise, Idaho, but these phone calls and visits have been a great comfort since they lost their daughter Michelle Barker.
Like the rest of the families, said Williams, who is Michelle Barker’s stepfather, they want to figure out what went wrong on that flight a year ago.
The families are suing the Cessna Aircraft Co. and Goodrich Corp., said Dean Brett, a Bellingham-based attorney who represents most of the families.
The federal lawsuits have been filed in conjunction with a Chicago-based law firm, Nolan Law Group, which represents others in lawsuits stemming from Cessna 208B crashes in the United States, Canada and Russia.
Attorneys are in the discovery process, including taking depositions. That is expected to be complete early next year, Brett said.
The common allegation among the lawsuits is that the equipment designed to prevent ice from collecting on the wings in freezing and wet flying conditions failed, causing the planes to crash, Brett said.
Whatever the outcome of the lawsuit, Heidi Barker said she is trying to focus on the positive — like the joy of sky-diving.
Barker said she took her first jump this May, on her daughter’s birthday. “She would have been 23. I didn’t know what to do with myself on that day, so I went up there (to the club) with cake and did it.”
Barker said pretty much the entire family jumped in honor of Michelle. “Once you jump out of that plane, you don’t think about much. But I was thinking of Michelle. It was like: ‘Oh, I finally get it.’ “
Jona Sharpe, Hollie Rasberry’s mother, went sky-diving for the first time in February on her daughter’s birthday as well.
Sharpe, 53, of Monroe, recalled one of her own birthdays, when Rasberry took her out to lunch. “She walked to my door and just took my breath away. She was so tall and beautiful, with the biggest, brightest smile I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Sharpe said she loved everything about her daughter, her bright spirit, her kind heart and her sense of style.
Her daughter jumped with a hot-pink parachute.
Hollie’s dad Mitch Rasberry and her stepmom Cheryl Rasberry said they found solace after visiting the site of the pane crash. “It wasn’t a sad thing. Something came over us and we felt at peace,” Cheryl Rasberry said.
For Heidi Barker and Rich Williams, they deal with the tragedy every day. “We can never get back to where we were,” he said. “We can only bring her to life for a couple of minutes on videotape. That’s all we have left.”
That and a tree planted for Michelle at a park in Boise, near a playground. “She always liked playgrounds. Even the sky was her playground,” Barker said.
Williams said the family is planning to remember Michelle by spending time with friends over the next couple of weeks.
Michelle Barker moved to Washington only several months before the crash, but she left a lot of friends behind here and in Idaho, Williams said.
“We are still meeting people we didn’t know our daughter knew,” he said.
Barker said the family and friends are planning what is called an ash dive for Michelle near Boise on Oct. 11. Before sunset, two people will jump out of a plane, each holding the end of a bag containing Michelle’s ashes. While in free fall, they will unzip the bag on both sides and let the ashes flow through the sky.
Green said this special honor is a tradition for deceased sky divers. Just last week, one was organized for another member of Our 10, Jeff Ross.
“It was beautiful. We watched the cloud from down below for a good half hour. And it looked like an angel with a halo,” Green said. “It was a clear blue sky that day, with nothing in it except for that cloud.”
Now that it’s been a year, the community has found its own ways of remembering Our 10. A week after the crash, Green herself had a heart-shaped blue butterfly tattooed on her wrist, with the number 10 in the middle. Since then, Green said she has seen at least 50 tattoos in honor of the deceased sky divers.
And people remember Our 10 at Fred’s Rivertown Ale House in Snohomish, where sky divers often go after a day of jumping. They share the impressions of the day over beer and some food, said Angela Anderson, an employee at the restaurant and a sky diver.
This Tuesday, more than 100 people are expected to gather at Fred’s after sunset to celebrate the lives of Our 10.
Anderson, 34, of Snohomish, said a similar get-together was held at the end of October last year.
Sky diver Leslie Matthews, 21, of Snohomish, who also works at the restaurant, said she remembers Fred’s packed to capacity that night. Not only were people outside waiting to get in, but almost every other restaurant on First Street had people talking about Our 10, sharing memories and support.
“It was a really good opportunity for their families to see how many lives their kids touched,” Matthews said.
Not a day passes without people at the restaurant looking at a framed poster of Our 10 hanging on the wall, Matthews said.
There is also a photo album full of notes and pictures of the group. Both in the sky and on the ground, the sky divers in those pictures are always smiling together with their loved ones.
In one photo, Ivy Green, safely strapped to her brother Kelly Craig, is stretching her arms toward her other brother, Casey Craig, three smiling faces against the clear, blue background of the sky, forever happy.
Reporter Diana Hefley contributed to this report.
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