'My dad was my hero': Daughter mourns loss of father who died after jet crashed into his car

MESA, Ariz. (KPHO/Gray News) – An Arizona family is mourning the loss of a father who was killed after a small jet crashed into his car last Tuesday.

Lorraine Longhi said the tragic irony of the death of her father, 67-year-old Ray Longhi, is that he loved aviation and traveling the world.

“My father was my hero, you know, and I know he wasn’t just my hero. He was my brother’s hero and a hero to his younger brother and sister,” said Lorraine Longhi.

Ray Longhi was killed by a plane during an aborted takeoff just blocks from his home near Falcon Field Airport in Mesa.

Lorraine Longhi said she remembers her father as a gentle giant and continues to look up to him, admiring his generous and adventurous nature.

‘My father was a real Rolling Stone, you know. He just wanted to see the whole world,” she said. “He really was so caring and so full of life.”

She said he was on his way to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport to pick up his wife of 35 years from work when the plane collided with his car.

“When I heard it was an accident I just assumed it was a car crash, but when I found out it involved a plane I found it so hard to wrap my head around she said.

Ray Longhi and four others on board the plane were killed in the crash. One 18-year-old survivor suffered burns.

Lorraine Longhi says she spoke to her father just before the accident.

He had texted her: “Are you okay?” She said it’s a phrase he often asks his loved ones.

‘It’s only now that I realize that my father wasn’t just asking if everything was okay. It was his way of saying he loved them, and I’m very glad we had a conversation right before it happened,” Lorraine Longhi said. “And I believe that he, you know, went down that path knowing that he was doing what he always did, which was taking care of his family,”

Grief has consumed their family since the loss of their father and grandfather.

Meanwhile, Lorraine Longhi does her best to move on without him and focus on the memories of the laughter she shares with her hero.

“That joy, I think, is just something that will be missed, and that will never be replaced,” Lorraine Longhi said.

Ray Longhi himself was adopted into a loving family as a baby and looked for ways to give back to foster children, including by donating to Sunshine Acres Children’s Home in Mesa.

Lorraine Longhi is asking anyone who would like to support their family during this time to do the same in his honor.