Plane crash claims Whidbey residents


June 25, 2008 · Updated 2:15 PM 

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"Four prominent Oak Harbor citizens will be among those remembered tonight, Sept. 19, at 7:30 when the University of Washington holds a memorial service at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.Sixteen people were killed last week when a sightseeing airplane crashed on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. All were University of Washington football fans who had left a cruise ship for the airplane excursion. Washington was scheduled to play Miami on Sept. 15 but the game was canceled due to the terrorist attacks on the East Coast.Among the dead were Oak Harbor residents Ted Zylstra, a 67-year-old attorney; Mary Kearney, a retired businesswoman and active golfer and weaver; Dwight Mitchell, 64, a former Oak Harbor city councilman, and his wife, Lois Mitchell, 60, who was a popular home economics teacher for three decades at Oak Harbor High School.The news of their deaths shook the Navy community already reeling from the terrorism attacks. We miss them a whole bunch. It's very hard to take. Very hard, said Al Koetje, former long-time mayor of the city. "

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