By Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
Bennett
WHAT WILL be remembered most about pilot and flight instructor Leaton Bennett was his love of flying.
A pilot since he was 17 years old, Mr. Bennett, who turned 21 less than two months ago, was well on his way to becoming a shining star at Wings Jamaica Limited. But on December 24, tragedy struck as he was killed when the Cessna 150 he was flying in with a trainee crashed shortly after take-off from the Tinson Pen aerodrome, Kingston.
A thanksgiving service for Mr. Bennett's life will be held today at the Church of Ascension in Mona Heights at 2:00 p.m. but his loved ones plan to concentrate not on his passing but remembering the love affair that had begun between him and flying when he was a schoolboy of 13.
In their opinion, Mr. Bennett's love for flying gave him additional drive to beat any obstacles set against a boy who became a ward of the state at the age of four.
It had given him the boost he needed, along with support from several "Good Samaritans" to end up doing what he loved best.
"He was gentle but he wasn't someone you could walk over. He had come to Children's Services because of extremely difficult circumstances. As a child he was very intelligent, very quiet and reserved. He was always studying and his reports were always excellent," said Mrs. Una Williams, a retired child care officer with the Children's Services division. She also described him as a responsible young man whose death had left his girlfriend "badly broken up."
But despite study, he and two friends had "spent all their spare time studying planes and watching planes take off. He was fascinated and was determined to be a pilot," said Mrs. Williams, whom Mr. Bennett had hailed as his "mother" on several occasions.
She said, based on his fascination, it came as no surprise when he came to her with his decision to become a pilot. "I did not know anything about Wings Jamaica. He came to the office and sat me down and told me how, where and what to do," she reminisced.
Sorrow was also the most dominant emotion at Wings Jamaica run by Mr. Bennett's mentor, Carl Barnett and at Children's Service division, where Mr. Bennett had remained until three or four years ago and had kept close to his heart after leaving, especially as they had helped him realise his dream.
"I was driving home when I heard of the accident and then I heard the name. I almost crashed. I'm feeling very sad,"said Deputy Director at Children's Services division, Yvonne Hood, remembering the young man who graduated from Wolmer's Boys' School with nine subjects and who was eagerly anticipating the future armed with certificates in gliding from the UK International Aeronautical Federation and three pilot's licences, the latest, a commercial, earned just last summer.
The Cessna airplane, which was on a training flight, crashed west of the Tinson Pen Aerodrome from which it had taken off. It ended up in the swamp area west of Marcus Garvey Drive near the zinc factory. Mr. Bennett was trapped in the aircraft and burnt to death. His body will be cremated. The crash, which is still being investigated, also left a a flight student, Mark Coley, with minor injuries.
