CLEARWATER, Fla. — They both had big families and were full of life: That's how relatives are remembering the two women who died after a plane crashed Thursday evening into a Clearwater mobile home park.
Pilot Jemin Patel, 54, died when his single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35 crashed just after 7 p.m. in the Bayside Waters community. Police also identified two women who were killed on the ground: 86-year-old Martha Parry, who lived at the impacted mobile home on Pagoda Drive, and 54-year-old Mary Ellen Pender, who was visiting.
Relatives told 10 Tampa Bay that Mary Ellen Pender came from a large family, and they’re all grieving.
“It was a tragic loss. She was a young woman. She leaves a husband and me,” mother Mary Pender said. Her daughter was part of a big family, and they're all in shock.
“Her life was short, but she enjoyed it,” Pender said.
Mary Ellen Pender's niece, Katie Klimes, calls her and Parry two peas in a pod.
“Nobody plans for this, this is crazy. I was just with her Wednesday night binge-watching a show,” said Klimes, recalling how her aunt loved to travel.
“She was in Ireland not that long ago and she had a trip planned for Portugal,” Klimes said.
Klimes said Mary Ellen Pender lived every day to the fullest. Her home is in Connecticut, but she spent half the year here in Tampa Bay.
“She was newly retired. She golfed once a week with her friends when she was here,” Klimes said.
Klimes said her aunt was her neighbor in Treasure Island. She was visiting Parry when the plane crashed.
“She was always trying to help. That's why she stayed at this little gathering where they played golf. To help her friend clean up,” Klimes said.
Parry's family was too devastated to speak on camera, but they did share pictures — she leaves behind three children, 11 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Parry's daughter, Kathryn Miller, said she was a snowbird from Long Island.
Parry spent half the year in Clearwater and this was her first time staying at Bayside Waters.
As many as nine people had been inside the mobile home that was directly hit, but all but two had left before the crash, according to Clearwater police. Determining what went wrong could take up to a year, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.