Lantana plane crash victims were teacher and student who had been training since December
LANTANA — Ana Diego Matias dreamed of flying commercial airplanes, loved the feeling of breaking free of the strict bounds of gravity and was determined to make her mother proud.
But Matias, 20, and her flight instructor Stanley Sands, 76, died in a crash Friday at the Palm Beach County Park Airport where she had been training since December to become a pilot.
On Sunday, her family set vases of flowers and balloons outside Airmax Aviation, where Sands, of Lake Worth Beach, worked as an instructor.
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"We were so happy for her, and we told her she should do what she wants and we would support her," said Matias' aunt, also named Ana Matias after a matriarch of the family. "Her boyfriend was always telling her to stay focused."
The crash of the single-engine Cessna 172 aircraft just before 11:20 a.m. Friday is still being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office released the identities of Matias and Sands on Sunday.
The NTSB said Friday it expects to have a report on what caused the crash in about three weeks.
The crash at the airport about 7 miles south of Palm Beach International Airport is the second deadly wreck this year. John Holland, 43, of Delray Beach and Michael Marshall Jr., 34 , of Boca Raton died when their Diamond DA40 crashed late on March 5.
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A woman who identified herself as the owner of Airmax Aviation but did not want to give her name said Sands was an excellent pilot who had worked for the company for several years. A memorial is being planned at the airport for Sands for Friday, she said.
"It's a big loss," the woman said. "He was quiet and reserved, but he was a good employee and very patient with students."
An Airmax Aviation profile of Sands says he was born in Brunswick, Georgia, and learned to fly at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, in 1968. He became a corporate pilot in 1972. He began working for Airmax after he retired.
Matias, a native of Guatemala who came to the U.S. when she was about 12, was a devout Christian who never missed church, her aunt said.
Matias had wanted to surprise her family with her pilot's license, but word of her training leaked out and she told them about her ambitions.
A GoFundMe page set up to pay for funeral expenses and to send Matias' body to Guatemala says the family, who calls her Isabela in the post, says few people knew about her goal. Although the family doesn't know the details of the crash, the fundraising note says "our Isabela died instantly during that crash."
"Isabela was a sweet girl, kind, intelligent, and caring person," the post says. "God was a big part of her life and her faith was big like her heart."
Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Victims of Lantana plane crash were instructor and his student
