Dan o'Day

The Advocate

Students in Mt. Hood Community College’s aviation program didn’t have class Monday morning. Instead they spent the hour trying to make sense of the senseless.

In place of the warm smile they knew would be there to make leaving the weekend behind a little easier, they found a vase of flowers and an empty seat.

MHCC student Kai Hetschel died early Saturday morning when the Cessna 172 she was flying crashed three miles southeast of Rock Candy Mountain in the Capitol Forest in Washington.

The Federal Aviation Administration is still investigating the cause of the crash.
Hetschel joined the MHCC aviation program in January and earned her private pilot license this past summer.

Fellow MHCC aviation students referred to her as “super dedicated.” Hetschel wanted to be a commercial pilot and spent most of her summer at airports flying with new friends who couldn’t help but be charmed by her warm personality.

One of those students was Nick Rodio, who referred to her as “the angel on my shoulder.”

“Aviation is like a locker room: almost all men. Having this sweet girl around, it was a blessing,” Rodio remembered fondly. “She’d always get on us when we said something inappropriate.”

Hetschel visited her cousin, who is also a pilot, in Everett, Wash., on Friday.
Though her cousin warned her about poor weather conditions, Hetschel had to work at the Olive Garden on Saturday, so she left Everett late Friday evening and headed toward the Troutdale Airport.

Soon she was reporting troublesome weather to air-traffic control.

At 2 a.m., the Thurston County sheriff’s office received a call from the FAA saying they had lost all communication and radar contact with Hetschel’s Cessna 172.

Her body was recovered from the plane’s wreckage later that morning in the Capitol Forest.

A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. today in Vancouver at Pearson Air Museum, 1115 E. Fifth St. For more information, call 360-694-7026.

Teacher Rich Powell described the scene in the flight training classes as “really heavy-hearted,” and Hetschel’s fellow students lamented about just how many holes there are left to fill in Kai Hetschel’s absence.