6 in Family Killed in Plane Crash

A Redondo Beach couple were among six family members killed on Christmas Day when the small airplane they were aboard crashed in Las Vegas, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.

Henry Waldman, 66, who was piloting the plane, and his wife, Vivienne, 67, died shortly after taking off from the North Las Vegas Airport about 1:20 p.m. Dec. 25, according to a preliminary report released by the NTSB. Also killed in the crash were the couple’s daughter, Susan Maini, 39; her husband, Steven Maini, 42; and their two children, Jack, 12, and Michele, 6, all of Las Vegas.

Waldman, a retired Air Force colonel who had served as a fighter pilot in Vietnam, was taking the family on a daylong excursion to Laughlin, Nev., when the Beech A-36 Bonanza went down, his son said Saturday.

“He’d just bought that plane a month before,” said Paul Waldman of Hermosa Beach. “The grandchildren were a big part of my parents’ lives and they went to Las Vegas monthly to visit them. Besides the grandchildren, their passion was flying.”

They had originally planned to go to the Grand Canyon, Waldman said, but bad weather forced them to change their destination.

According to the NTSB report, the elder Waldman declared an emergency moments after liftoff and headed back to the airport, crashing in its outskirts. A witness, the report said, indicated that the plane tilted upward at an “extremely nose-high” angle and appeared sluggish before going down.

Members of the Maini family were eulogized Friday at a Las Vegas memorial service attended by more than 100 people.

A memorial service for the Waldmans is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Monday at Temple Menorah in Redondo Beach, followed by interment at Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Associated Press contributed to this report.