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- Five members of a White Bear Lake Township family were killed in a plane crash Saturday afternoon after taking off from a Steamboat Springs, Colorado, airfield. Pilot Randy Bacchus, 37, his wife, Mary Kay, 35, and three of their children, Bradley, 12, Stacy, 9, and Corey, 7, died when their six -passenger single -engine Beech Bonanza BE36 crashed into Copper Ridge about one and one -fourth miles east of the airport. One other child, Randy Jr., did not make the trip and remained at the family home in White Bear Lake, according to a family friend. Randy Bacchus, 2708 South Shore Blvd. was identified as president of Bacchus Construction Co., a St. Paul firm. Rautt County Sheriff Tim Walsh said, 'An eyewitness saw it take off north, turn due east and attempt to climb over a ridge called Copper Ridge. The plane (struck) the west side of the summit within a couple hundred feet of getting over it.' Visibility was good, although it was cloudy and overcast when the plane took off from the Bob Adams Stolport at 1:10 p.m., the sheriff said.
The airport is 6,880 feet above sea level and the top of the ridge is at about 8,400, he said. . . . Henry Lessman, a family friend and co- worker of Randy Bacchus, said last night that Bacchus was an excellent instrument- rated pilot with several years of flying experience. The aircraft, which Bacchus owned, was equipped with radar and an anti -icing device to assist in flying in high altitudes, Lessman said. 'He had every safety control you could have on that plane,' said Lessman. 'Every time that I've flown with him it was like a professional was flying' He said Bacchus frequently flew the plane on family vacations. The five members of the Bacchus family left for the Colorado ski resort Tuesday and were scheduled to return today. 'I talked to Randy on Friday and he said there wasn't much snow except on the top of the slopes. He said he'd made a couple of runs. He sounded like his old jolly self,' Lessman said.
Family members and neighbors were stunned to hear about the crash. Lessman said Bacchus has worked in the family construction business since childhood, attended the University of Minnesota School of Architecture and last year branched out into a new company, Bacchus Homes, which recently completed a 16-home town house project in St. Paul. Bacchus' father, Kenneth Bacchus, started the family construction business in the mid-1930's and had relinquished much of the control to his son in recent years, Lessman said.
The Bacchus' next- door neighbor, Daisy Gorst said, 'They have been such marvellous neighbors. I adored them so much. They were gracious and friendly. When I lost my husband here a couple of years ago they were so lovely to me.' [2]
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