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Lone Crash Survivor, Parents Meet

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By JUAN ZAMORANO, The Associated Press

Published: December 27, 2007

PANAMA CITY, Panama - Colleagues mourned hedge fund manager Michael Klein and his daughter Wednesday, a day after the Californians were killed when their plane crashed in a remote, mountainous region of Panama.

The sole survivor of the plane crash was reunited with her family after rescue workers trekked for five hours to carry the 12-year-old American girl out of a remote mountain area, then airlifted her to a hospital.

Francesca Lewis, wearing a neck brace and with one arm bandaged, met with her parents at a hospital in the town of David, capital of Chiriqui province.

"She apparently has some fractures, but she is stable and talking," physician Manuel de la Cruz said.

Rescue workers struggled for five hours against heavy rains and high-altitude winds to carry Francesca by stretcher from the crash site to a spot where a helicopter could land, Chiriqui Civil Protection Director Armando Palacios said.

The friend of 13-year-old Talia Klein had been traveling with Talia and her father when the Cessna 172 crashed Sunday while high in rugged mountains near the jungle-flanked slopes of the Baru volcano, 270 miles west of the capital, Panama City.

In addition to Talia and Michael Klein, 37, of Santa Barbara, Calif., Panamanian pilot Edwin Lasso, 23, died in the crash.

A preliminary investigation showed that the plane struck a tree and split in two, National Civil Protection Director Roberto Velasquez said.

Klein was chief executive officer of Pacificor, a Santa Barbara-based company that manages several hedge funds. He founded two companies in the 1990s before becoming president and CEO of eGroups, which was the world's largest group e-mail communication service. Yahoo purchased eGroups for $450 million in August 2000, and it is now known as Yahoo Groups.

Klein was on vacation with the two girls at an eco-resort he owns in the Central American nation, according to Kim Klein, his ex-wife and Talia's mother. He and the two girls had been scheduled to return to Santa Barbara on Monday, she said.

A colleague described Klein as a brilliant businessman who skipped high school and graduated from college at age 17.

"One of the most interesting people you could ever speak to on any ... myriad of subjects," Kurt Benjamin, vice president of business development at Pacificor, told KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. "He's just an unbelievable individual."

Benjamin said Klein was close to his daughter. "Her father was so proud of her," he said. "She was an amazing, accomplished horseback rider - just an absolute winner."

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