Rockefeller son dies after his plane crashes
Source: USA Today
PURCHASE, N.Y A son of the oldest living member of the Rockefeller family died Friday after the small plane he was piloting crashed into a neighborhood near Westchester County Airport.
Richard Rockefeller, 64, of Falmouth, Maine, ate dinner the night before with his father, David Rockefeller, to celebrate the scion's 99th birthday, said family spokesman Fraser Seitel, who confirmed the death.
"It's a terrible tragedy," Seitel said. "The family is in shock. Richard was a wonderful and cherished member of the family. He was an experienced pilot. He was a medical doctor, and it's horribly sad."
The plane, a Piper Meridian single-engine turbo prop registered to Richard Rockefeller, left the White Plains, N.Y., airport about 8 a.m. ET and was reported down within 10 minutes in a residential area less than 3 miles away in Purchase, about 30 miles north of New York, airport operations administrator Peter Scherrer said. The weather at the time of takeoff was foggy and rainy.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/13/one-dead-plane-crash-westchester-county-airport
Cross gently Richard. You've done your family proud.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)Response to closeupready (Reply #1)
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Rhiannon12866
(202,978 posts)TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)and dedication that would entail, when you don't really need the money. Sounds like a real loss. Rest in peace.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)not everybody is built to party all the time or enslave the world (or both).
Some people have to feel like they are doing something useful with their lives.
Spouting Horn
(338 posts)And of course no one really knows how much access he had to their fortune. If I was mega rich I would not bequeath my children enough so they could do nothing.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)I want to leave my children enough money that they would feel that they can do anything, but not so much that they can do nothing." Warren Buffett.
JI7
(89,175 posts)he will pay for education and health care but otherwise they have to work for it. they are still privileged in that if they want to go to an expensive school it will be fully funded and they can just focus on education without part time jobs or worry about paying it back.
but if they drop out he isn't going to be taking care of them. and certainly not provide a wealthy lifestyle for them.
Response to yurbud (Reply #4)
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leftynyc
(26,060 posts)I live around 5 miles from the airport and I'm a bit surprised he was cleared to take off. Ceiling was very low. May he rest in peace.
Major Nikon
(36,814 posts)Some people do it. I don't. I was stuck in Kansas City on Friday for 3 hours until the visibility came up to 1 mile. Although it's legal to take off in fog, I don't do it because if I have a problem I can't return to the airport I just left. I heard some people departing even when the fog was at its worst.
Capt.Rocky300
(1,005 posts)There are old pilots and bold pilots but no old bold pilots.
Major Nikon
(36,814 posts)I'm not going to guess what the cause of the accident was, but it would have been tough getting back into the White Plains airport around that time had he needed to return.
Having to wait added 2 hours to my trip last Friday. I was flying between Kansas City and Dallas and had I got out at 6:30 as I planned I would have beat the weather moving in from the west. After waiting until 9:30 I had to divert almost all the way to Little Rock before I got around it. It was very tempting to take off into the soup, but I stick to my own personal standards which are higher than anything the FAA would let me do legally. Interestingly enough there was a professional pilot waiting to fly his boss in the exact same model aircraft as Rockefeller's. Like me he wasn't going to take off with less than 1/4 mile visibility. So it appears as if Rockefeller was bolder than either one of us.
Capt.Rocky300
(1,005 posts)all spelled out. The mins for takeoff and landing are hard numbers. I wish the Feds would institute tighter limits in Part 91. Sometimes rules can make up for bad judgement and save lives. If they are followed, that is. Take it from this old captain and long ago CFII, you exercised good judgement. Stick with your standards Major.
PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)..hoping it's VFR at destination when one gets there.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)SiobhanClancy
(2,955 posts)evidently he was a truly kind and generous man
renate
(13,776 posts)I was just reading a book of letters of parents to their children, and the original Rockefeller really did seem like a good, generous, and philanthropic person. Apparently that tradition made it through the generations intact. I'm sorry to hear that he's gone, but glad that he must have had a better life than that of many wealthy people who think only of themselves.
question everything
(47,265 posts)*
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but... cannot help it. Doesn't the word scion refer to a descendant, not to a parent?
In the sentence talking about celebrating David Rockefeller the scion's 99th birthday..
JI7
(89,175 posts)since david's father and grandfather made the family famous/wealthy.
sendero
(28,552 posts)He had white horses and ladies by the score
All dressed in satin and waiting by the door
Ooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooh, what a lucky man he was
White lace and feathers, they made up his bed
A gold covered mattress on which he was laid
Ooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooh, what a lucky man he was
He went to fight wars for his country and his king
Of his honor and his glory, the people would sing
Ooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooh, what a lucky man he was
A bullet had found him, his blood ran as he cried
No money could save him, so he laid down and died
Ooh, what a lucky man he was
Ooh, what a lucky man he was
Gormy Cuss
(30,884 posts)renate
(13,776 posts)I'd never heard of him. Now I'm really sad. He sounds like a phenomenal person.