Kurt Hanson fought off tears thinking of his friend and fellow pilot, Alex Wurm.
“Forgive me, it’s just I can see him now, smiling,” Hanson said.
Wurm died Monday, along with his daughter Serena, when the plane they were flying with hurricane relief supplies to Jamaica crashed into a lake in Coral Springs.
Hanson was at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport with them that morning as they loaded the plane with aid.
He remembered some of the last words he said to his friend.
“Thank you so much… I said your passion for Jamaica is really showing now. I really appreciate all you’ve been doing,” he said.
Hanson had brought donations from his organization, Footprints to Success, that Wurm was taking to Montego Bay.
Now Hanson was one of the last people to see Alex and Serena alive. By the time he got home to Pembroke Pines, they were gone.
“To see him in the cockpit, everyone was packing up, and he’s smiling, checking over his instruments to make sure everything is good. And to come home and in two hours, that was heartbreaking,” Hanson said.
For days, crews have worked to retrieve as much of the aircraft as possible from the scene and recover the bodies.
Plane parts are being loaded onto a trailer outside the scene along Creekside Drive near 441.
As Hanson grieves, he’s determined to help. He set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for supplies for Jamaica.
“They don’t need money, they need the goods. The diapers, water, Pampers,” he said.
He’s determined to continue the work Wurm was doing when he died.
“Those folks in Jamaica loved him; he was adored by everybody,” Hanson said. “It just makes life more fragile; it makes you think life is so short.”
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