Gone, Into The Wild Blue Hundreds Gather For Memorial Honoring Crash Victims
George Freije and Dean Cox had much in common: love of family and friends, community service, good food.
But another shared passion - flying - brought them together Feb. 26 and resulted in their deaths.
En route to a pilots convention, where the Spokane men planned to scout parts for a plane they were building together, Freije’s plane crashed in a snowstorm near Coeur d’Alene.
More than 550 people, many of them somber pilots in brown-leather bomber jackets, crowded Thursday into a chilly airplane hangar at Felts Field to eulogize the men.
Flight stories stacked up.
Dick Perry, Freije’s friend of 20 years, recalled how the two once meandered a small plane into a crowded commercial flight path above Phoenix. They barely escaped.
Freije was a fixture at Felts Field for more than 30 years. He built a purple-and-black kit plane - a lean model as sleek as a bird - by flying in parts, load by load, from Portland.
Freije, 73, retired Feb. 2 after a career as a mechanic. “When the weather got good, we were just going to fly around for a while,” Perry said.
“George ate, lived and slept flying,” said his brother, Bob Freije. “He liked anything fast - fast planes, fast cars.”
Cox, 48, was a relative newcomer to the pilot community, after picking up the hobby 10 years ago.
Earning a reputation for lending a hand or plane to whoever needed help, he quickly made a name for himself in the tightknit flying community, eventually becoming president of the Washington Pilot’s Association.
“I can’t tell you how many hours we spent flying in formation,” said Chuck Eller, one of Cox’s friends. After eulogizing Cox, Eller ran out the door to lead a fly-by over the memorial service.
Cox, a father and husband, owned his own business and was a relentless tinkerer and gourmet cook.
He gave free flights to disadvantaged kids and fishing buddies eager for a quick trip to the mountains.
Family trips to clam beds in the Puget Sound were enriched by Cox’s culinary touch. “Dean was the best clam cook I’ve ever been around,” said Eller.
One of Freije’s three children, Jane Baker, described her father as a loving man with a passion for dancing and ice cream.
When his wife got multiple sclerosis, Freije dropped the dancing and took to entertaining his ailing wife with trips to the clouds.
“You can remember him saying flying was like nothing else,” she said.
The cause of the crash remains a mystery. Perry said Freije probably got into trouble when the wings of his plane froze.
“It’s a tragedy, but you expect this kind of thing to happen,” Perry said. “It’s still safer than driving on the highway.”
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