Aerobatic stunt proves deadly

Plane crash kills 'thrill-seeker,' 19, and 25-year-old pilot

John Aguilar, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 26, 2005 at midnight

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Mark Lehrner never thought that after skiing and sharing a meal on Friday with his 19-year-old son that he'd have to spend the first day of Hanukkah picking out a casket for him.

But that's exactly what he was faced with doing Sunday - the day after his son, Daniel Lehrner, and a friend, Neil Bresler, died in a single-engine plane crash east of Niwot.

"He tried to live life to the fullest," Mark Lehrner said of his son Sunday evening. "Unfortunately, he met with a tragic, tragic accident. We miss him dearly."

Daniel Lehrner, a 2004 graduate of Arapahoe High School in Littleton, worked with Bresler, 25, at a marketing firm in San Marcos, Texas.

Mark Lehrner said his son, who he described as a "thrill-seeker," decided to forgo college in order to develop his business skills. He started at a marketing company in Denver and then took a similar job in Texas in May.

"He liked the independence of being in business for himself and being out on his own," his father said.

Daniel Lehrner and Bresler shared a home in Texas with Lehrner's stepbrother, Chris Colvard, and Colvard's girlfriend.

Colvard, 26, said the three of them had talked for the past six months about flying with Bresler, who Colvard described as "an experienced pilot" and former test pilot.

He said Bresler loved snowboarding and rock climbing and had an infectious energy.

"He was the kindest person you ever met. He'd give anything to anybody," Colvard said Sunday.

Mostly though, Bresler loved to fly.

"It was Neil's passion and we wanted to share that with him," Colvard said.

When the trio returned to Colorado to be with family for the holidays, they decided to put their plan into action and go for a ride in a home-built, single-engine Kit Fox plane piloted by Bresler.

Colvard said Bresler took off from Jefferson County Airport early Saturday morning and landed at Tri-County Airport in Erie, where the brothers were waiting for him.

Colvard said he and Bresler flew the same route Bresler would later take with Lehrner, even pulling off the same aerobatic maneuver in which Bresler put the plane into a steep ascent, stalled the engine and then precipitously dropped back down to regain power.

It was that maneuver, with Lehrner on board later that morning, that witnesses said went terribly wrong.

The plane crashed on the shoreline of Panama Reservoir No. 1 between Erie and Niwot, near Colorado 52 and U.S. 287.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

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