The co-pilot was a local girl.
Family, friends mourn loss of co-pilot from Washington
By Jack Broom and Steve Miletich
Seattle Times staff reporters
Rebecca Lynne Shaw loved to fly.
"It was her passion," Shaw's mother, Lyn Morris, told reporters outside Shaw's home in Maple Valley on Friday. "She was just full of energy. She would try anything, do anything, was up for any new experience — she just loved life."
Shaw — "Beki" to friends and family — was first officer aboard Continental Connection Flight 3407, which plunged into a house in a Buffalo suburb Thursday night, killing all 49 people aboard and one person on the ground.
Shaw, 24, was a 2007 graduate of Central Washington University in Ellensburg and a 2002 graduate of Tahoma High School in Covington. It was during her senior year of high school that she told her parents she wanted to fly.
After high school, she began studying aviation technology at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, then transferred to Central, where she earned a flight-technology degree, her mother said.
Shaw joined Colgan Air in January 2008 and had flown more than 2,000 hours. Colgan operates commuter flights for Continental Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.
Morris said the family learned at about 4:30 a.m. Friday that Shaw was on the plane that crashed.
"We don't think we've accepted it yet," Morris said. "... It's very difficult. We keep expecting Beki to come around the corner and say it's not real."
Morris said her daughter and son-in-law, Troy Shaw, had moved recently to Maple Valley from the East Coast. Troy Shaw boarded a plane for Buffalo on Friday morning after learning of the crash.
"We would like to express our love and concern and our prayers for every single person impacted by this tragedy," Shaw's mother said. "And we wish everyone God's strength."
Shaw's former volleyball coach at Tahoma High, Mark Oglesby, a social-studies teacher who now lives in Michigan, said he learned of her death when another former player e-mailed him.
"Complete shock, utter disbelief, sad," Oglesby said of his reaction, in a telephone call with The Seattle Times. The person who contacted Oglesby, Kristin Fink, who now works at Tahoma High, recalled Shaw as "one of those teammates who was always cheery ... an inspiration."
Fink, known as Kristin Jolk in high school, said she got the news in a school e-mail.
"I just kind of sat there and stared at my computer," said Fink, captain of the volleyball team when Shaw joined.
Shaw always "had this fire" and helped everyone around her, Fink said. "I don't know that I ever saw her not smiling."
Oglesby said Shaw, then Rebecca Morris, played for him for one year, during her sophomore year at Tahoma, before he left for Michigan.
"She was just a fun kid," Oglesby said, recalling that she kept playing after injuring her wrist. "She was a tough girl ... everything you would want in a person on your team."
In a written statement released by the Tahoma School District, Dave Peters, teacher and activities coordinator, said he'd been Shaw's teacher for four years.
"Beki was a 'people person.' She was full of energy and fun. If there was something loud and fun going on you could usually find Beki in the middle of it!" Peters' statement said.
Shaw had a passion for service, traveled to Mexico on mission trips, and was a leader, Peters said.
"Like all teenagers, she went through a period of confusion as to where she was headed in life. Then she latched on to the idea of becoming a pilot. From then on she had a purpose and a passion," he said.
His first reaction to Shaw's death was terrific sadness and anger over the loss of someone so young, Peters said. But "Beki's life was full — she achieved her goal and was doing what she truly loved. Many who live much longer lives cannot say that."
A somber mood hung over Central Washington University on Friday as many students who knew Shaw in the aviation department were in shock, said Central's Aviation Department Chairwoman Amy Hoover. Shaw had worked as a dispatcher at the airport in Ellensburg, where many of the current students got to know her.
Hoover described Shaw as an outgoing person, a standout in the 200-student aviation department and a joy to have in class.
"She was great. She was a good pilot, a good student," Hoover said.
"I remember her saying the one thing that she wanted to do with her life was to be a pilot, and that's what she was doing."
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