http://www.hollys-pride.com/
http://www.torontosun.com/news/toron.../14110486.html
BURLINGTON — Flying became a passion for Paul Jess.
“Once he started it, he loved it,” family friend Amanda Fraser said Wednesday, a day after Jess, 54, crashed his plane into the roof of a Markham toy factory, killing himself and a friend from Burlington Executive Airport. “He loved that plane.”
Family and friends gathered Wednesday at Jess’ Burlington home with his wife, Gwen, and three adult children.
Jess and his unidentified passenger had flown his four-seater single-engine Cirrus SR-20 from Milton to Buttonville airport for radio repairs at a private avionics shop over the noon hour Tuesday.
Moments after the pair took off from Buttonville, the control tower got a radio call saying there was a problem with the plane and it was heading back, said Derek Sifton, president of Toronto Airways Ltd., which owns and operates Buttonville.
“You never know what might have been happening in that cockpit, decisions are made in a split second,” he said, adding “seconds” were all that separated the takeoff from the fiery crash.
“I can only speculate, but he probably saw the smoke coming from the engine.”
The plane made a left turn and crashed on to the roof of a Woodbine Ave. toy factory.
The first call to Jess’ family came from a newspaper reporter, hours before police showed up to confirm the news, Fraser said.
“I think everybody’s just shocked. Nobody could believe it,” she said.
Jess opened an upscale pet hotel called Holly’s Pride behind his home in 1991 and later opened a second location in Ancaster.
“He grew up breeding dogs ... and then as soon as he could afford it, that was what he wanted to do,” said Fraser, general manager of Holly’s Pride. “He was always disappointed with the way animals were taken care of in the past. He wanted to make something that was better for them.”
A few years ago, he began flying — and flying, and flying, and flying.
“He probably flew at least a few times a week,” Fraser said. “He would fly down (to Florida) to watch the air shows.”
Fraser remembered her boss as a devoted family man who “would do anything for anybody.” Be it a staff issue or a mechanical problem, “Paul would be there, Paul would come, Paul would fix it,” she said.
“People make acquaintances; Paul makes friends. Everybody who knows him always ends up being his friend — I mean, lifetime friend.”
It could be a year or more before the families of Jess and his passenger know what caused the crash.
“Every case is different,” said Chris Kepski, lead investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which is heading the probe.
“We are doing a full investigation. We’re trying to gather as much information as possible from all sources.”
Investigators will examine the pilot’s flying record and the maintenance record of the plane, Kepski said.
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