When they heard that a plane had crashed and people were killed on Tuesday off Mogadore Road in Akron, Steve and Cindy Miller had been there before — in 2000.
That’s when a single-engine plane from Akron Fulton International Airport crashed into their house in Akron’s Ellet neighborhood shortly after takeoff.
Cindy and their daughter, Julie, then 13, escaped the burning house. The pilot, Rudolph Perry Jr., 49, of Akron, was killed.
The Millers lost everything except each other.
Tuesday’s crash — about 3½ miles from their house — rekindled 15-year-old memories, plus “visions and emotions” tied to the 2000 crash, said Steve Miller, 60, a retired senior manager at Goodyear.
He recalled that horrible, “pit-of-the-stomach” feeling on first seeing the 2000 crash site with flames shooting out of the upper windows of his home.
It’s a memory he said will last forever.
Steve said he can still picture “the black inky smoke, the first image of the fire at our house.”
“The black smoke came from burning jet fuel.…It looked like a mushroom cloud from an atomic explosion in our neighborhood,” he said.
Remembering the day
On hearing of the new crash, Steve said he was concerned about those on the plane and those on the ground, but his mind flashed back to that “very same cloud of black inky smoke” from 2000.
“My heart went out to those people,” he said.
The real tragedy, he said, is the loss of nine young and talented individuals.
“There are still things that bring it back and cause you to get a little weepy,” his wife added.
On March 19, 2000, Steve had been out jogging when he returned to find the house on fire. He feared that he had lost his wife and daughter.
Cindy had been showering when she heard a large boom. Her initial thought was that the furnace had exploded. The living room where she had been sitting 10 minutes early was consumed in a column of flames from the crashed plane.
She rushed to get Julie and exit the house.
Federal officials later said the four-seat plane was having mechanical problems, but the crash was caused by pilot error.
Their lives will forever be marked by pre-crash and post-crash, they said. That 2000 plane crash and fire is a traumatic event that has shaped their lives in a big way.
The event was “a life-changing moment,” Cindy said.
The family rebuilt their house at the same location on Herbert Road in the Eastgate Commons subdivision.
Rebuilding their home
Opting to rebuild in the same spot was “not a tough decision,” said Cindy, who is 56. “We liked the neighborhood and there was no reason to move.”
The odds of a plane crashing into their house were “astronomical,” her husband said. “We liked the area and it was fairly easy decision to make.”
Steve, a statistician at heart, had actually researched flight patterns from the Akron Fulton International Airport before buying their house and had concluded that they would be safe from airport mishaps.
Their daughter, Julie, now 29, works in a medical laboratory at Akron Children’s Hospital.
Steve said he and his wife are very familiar with what survivors in the apartment complex will be going through to rebuild their lives.
“They have a journey ahead of them to rebuild their lives from the possession standpoint,” he said.
Added Cindy: “People lost their belongings and so much that define their lives.…It is going to take time to get over it. They lost belongings, but there are memories associated with those belongings. And that makes it tough. You have to grieve and let it go.”
Losing photographs and family mementoes was especially hard, Cindy said.
For Steve, the two plane crashes point out “the preciousness of life.”
For Cindy, they’re a reminder of the importance of living in the moment.
“It’s your moment and no other moment is guaranteed,” she said. “You have to appreciate the moments.”
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.