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In The Arms Of The Angels

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 19, 2008

The crash that killed three people Thursday afternoon at Vandenberg Airport was not only incredibly sad, it was awful in its irony.

Pilot Harlan Northcott of Sun City Center was a 20-year volunteer for the nonprofit organization Angel Flight, which helps transport the sick to the treatment they need. His passengers were a cancer patient from Stuart, who had just left H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, and a teenaged friend of her family.

The Beechcraft Bonanza never even cleared the ground for the trip back to the state's East Coast. It hit a tower and caught fire.

When tragedy like this happens, not every question can be answered, and faith is tested. But look at it from this perspective: Northcott, who lost his life helping someone in need, made Florida - the whole world, in fact - a better place. That's his legacy. Few people can say that.

Now a new volunteer needs to fill Northcott's void and, as the novel and movie of the same name urges, "pay it forward" - to continue providing hope to people who need it most.

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