Friends remember pilot killed in Nigerian crash
MESA, AZ - It looked like a postcard he would approve of.
Flags were waving in the foreground, an airport tower in the middle as the Arizona sun was setting.
Except Pete Waxtan wasn’t around. Instead, a memorial was held at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport to remember the captain.
Waxtan, 55, was the pilot of a doomed flight that crashed and killed 153 in Nigeria.
Patrick Squires knew Waxtan for 15-plus years.
Both pilots worked together at Spirit Airlines and Falcon Air, which has operations at Gateway.
"I'm going to miss him,” Squires said, while trying to hold back tears.
Squires was there with Lori Eichenberger and Craig Lambert, both flight attendants who worked with Waxtan.
"Miss talking to him…just having him around,” Squires added.
Squires strongly believes his friend tried all he could to save those on board and people in the Nigerian city, Lagos.
Eichenberger, Lambert and Squires all broke down when an MD-83 took off, circled and flew over the tarmac where other friends had gathered.
When the plane landed, fire trucks saluted Waxtan
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