Gen-Aspen Crash Victims

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Mar 31, 2001 - 07:05 PM

Aspen Crash Victims Included Group of Lifelong Friends The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) - One was a promising young filmmaker. Another an actor and businessman. A third was a talented television station assignment editor who dreamed of appearing in front of the cameras himself. Several of the victims of the plane crash at Aspen, Colo., were members of a talented group of friends who had stayed close since attending Bancroft Junior High School in Hollywood.

The group, joined by their girlfriends and family members, often got together for vacations, like the Aspen ski weekend they had planned to celebrate the birthday of one member of the group.

Mario Aguilar, a businessman and aspiring actor, planned to celebrate his birthday along with brothers Joe and Joey, his mother, Maria Valanzuela, and an aunt, said an acquaintance. All five died in the crash Thursday.

The party had been planned by Mario Aguilar's business partner, Robert New, who also died in the crash, said brother Jonathan New.

Among the others killed was Elena Bernal, 29, of El Monte. She was Joe Aguilar's girlfriend and was studying photography at Pasadena City College.

Another passenger was Mirweis Tukhi, 26, of Buena Park in Orange County, who "died with 10 of his best friends," his brother, Jawad Tukhi, told the Los Angeles Times.

Mirweis Tukhi was a television news assignment editor for KTTV News.

"He was torn," said professor Pete Weitzner of Chapman College, where Tukhi studied. "He wanted to be on the air, but he was doing so well behind the scenes."

Tukhi's girlfriend, Marissa Witham, 22, of Los Angeles, was an aspiring newscaster who also worked at the station as a production assistant.

Ori Greenberg, 23, of Hermosa Beach, was a fledgling filmmaker who had won a directing award at the Moxie!/Santa Monica International Film Festival for a short film he produced about a homeless woman.

"I think Ori would have made it big in filmmaking," said Harry Cheney, a teacher at Chapman College, which Greenberg also attended.

Greenberg's girlfriend, Elizabeth Ann Smith, 21, often helped Greenberg with his films, particularly with costumes.

Members of the group were described as hardworking, grounded young professionals.

"You talk about your cigar-chomping, arrogant Hollywood types. These kids were anything but," said Victoria Greenberg, Ori's mother. "They were so centered and solid, and they had their heads on straight."

Another friend, Eugene Kaplansky, 26, of Hollywood, had passed the first part of the exam to become a certified public accountant.

The friends were "a great bunch of guys ... they really cared about each other and stuck together," said Roman Kaplansky, Eugene's brother.

Also killed were two other passengers and the three crew members.

AP-ES-03-31-01 1904EST © Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2001


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