Jewish pilot goes down in California

A Facebook page in memory of a Jewish pilot who was killed when his plane crashed in California has amassed more than 100 messages, as well as photos and videos.

Ben Glattstein, 28, a graduate of Moriah College in Sydney, was flying from America to Australia to be a groomsman at his friend’s wedding at the Great Synagogue in Sydney when his single-engine plane crashed just outside Hollister Municipal Airport, about 100 miles south of San Francisco.

Glattstein was the only person aboard the Mooney 20R aircraft when it went down Nov. 25 at 6:35 a.m. He was dead among the plane’s wreckage when firefighters arrived at the scene.

The Federal Aviation Authority is investigating the incident.

Glattstein left Australia in 2003 for the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, where he became a pilot. He was flying to Australia via Hawaii. Arrangements are being made to return his body to Australia for burial.

His father, Nathan Glattstein, told the Sydney Morning Herald that his son “never said it but I think he loved the freedom, he loved the excitement, and everything that he did he showed that.”