Jessica Dubroff's mother on Friday defended her decision to allow her 7-year-old daughter to make the flight that ended in tragedy, saying "You've no idea what this meant to Jess."
"She had a freedom which you can't get by holding her back," a crying Lisa Blair Hathaway told NBC's "Today" while cradling her 3-year-old daughter, Jasmine.Jessica, in an effort to become the youngest person to fly cross-country, was killed Thursday when her single-engine plane crashed in driving rain and snow shortly after takeoff, barely missing a house. Her father and flight instructor also died.
"I did everything so this child could have freedom and choice and have what America stands for," Hathaway said. "Liberty comes from . . . just living your life. I couldn't bear to have my children in any other position."
Hathaway said that if children were forbidden to do anything unsafe, "They would be padded up and they wouldn't go anywhere. They wouldn't ride a bicycle; they wouldn't do anything."
"I ask anybody that questions whether Jessica should have, quote, `gone up' to speak to somebody who loves her dearly."
"You've no idea what this meant to Jess,"she said.
Hathaway said she had spoken to her daughter on the telephone moments before the crash, and while she heard the rain in the background, there was no hint of trouble. Hathaway was in Massachusetts at the time, where she had gone to await her daughter's arrival.
"If there was something to be concerned about . . . she and Joe would've talked about it," she said, referring to flight instructor Joe Reid. "There's no part of me that wants to question that."
Less than a month away from her 8th birthday, Jessica used a red booster seat to see over the dashboard. At 4-foot-2, she couldn't get her feet to the control pedals without some help, so she used extenders.
"I'm going to fly till I fly solo," she told The Associated Press last week. "Fly till I die."
On Thursday, after the crash, Hathaway said she would "beg people" to let their children fly. "Clearly I would want all my children to die in a state of joy, but not at age 7," she said.
Hathaway flew to Cheyenne on Thursday night to claim her daughter's body. Her plane landed a short distance from the spot of her daughter's last takeoff at the Cheyenne Municipal Airport.
Jessica's plane, a Cessna 177B owned by Reid, nose-dived to the ground minutes after taking off at 8:25 a.m., in a thunderstorm that produced heavy rain, snow and 32-mph winds.
Also killed in the crash were her father, Lloyd Dubroff, 57, and Reid, 52.
The plane had a double set of controls to allow Reid to take over in an emergency, and Reid took control as the plane went over the Rockies, a challenge for even experienced pilots.
Officials would not speculate on the cause of the crash, but observers said weather could have been a factor.
A United Express commuter flight that was scheduled to depart moments after Jessica took off was delayed because of bad weather, The Denver Post reported Friday.
The thunderstorm had blown in quickly, replacing a light rain.
"It changed from wind to sleet," said Cheyenne Police Chief John Powell, who called it the typical Rockies storm that "can get vicious in a hurry."