Thursday, September 29, 2011

Concannon Radial Rocket, N91TX: Fatal accident occurred September 19, 2011 in Socorro, New Mexico

Seth Lundell (left) and Dr. Mark Lundell, from October 2010.


Seth Lundell liked to tell folks that he had never met a stranger. "They were just friends he hadn't met yet," his sister Betsy Lundell recalled.

Seth, 20, and his father Mark, 60, died on Sept. 19 in a plane crash outside of Socorro, N.M.

Mark, a vascular surgeon who owned Scottsdale Vein Center, was an experienced pilot. The Paradise Valley resident and his son, who also had his pilot's license, were flying back from Louisiana after picking up a new experimental airplane, family members said. Mark and Seth were the only two on board.

A celebration of life for Seth is planned for 5 p.m. Friday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6840 E. Gold Dust Ave., Scottsdale.

A celebration of life for Mark is planned for 5 p.m. Saturday at Mesa's Falcon Field Airport, 4800 E. Falcon Drive.

Fellow pilots will honor father and son with separate missing man formations over the airport.

It was Seth's spirit, smile and grace that made his mother, Deborah, call Seth the "dessert" of her family. Seth, a 2009 graduate of Arcadia High School, was the last born of six children.

The elder Lundell instilled his love of aviation in his six children early on. As the four boys and two girls were growing up, he and his wife would pile the kids into a World War II Twin Beech AT-11 trainer and fly around the country to air shows.

In lieu of flowers, family members are asking for donations to a fund to honor the Lundells' aviation legacy. The Mark Lundell M.D. and Seth Lundell memorial fund has been established at Bank of America.

"Your donations will allow our father and both our brothers to continue to share their love of flight to future generations of aviators through the Young Eagles Project," Besty wrote on the Lundells' Facebook memorial page.

Seth was the second Lundell child to die in a plane crash.

Jacob Lundell was 21 when he died in a crash at the Casa Grande Municipal Airport in 2005.

Mark, who was observing Jacob practice touch-and-go landings, removed the body from the wreckage and drove it to his Paradise Valley home to allow the family to say goodbye.

That prompted a police probe, but no charges were filed.

2 comments:

  1. So sorry for your loss, but Dr. Mark Lundell deserves to burn in hell.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What a horrible & unhappy person you must be. The family is devastated, have some compassion

      Delete