HOUSTON — One of the six men killed when two planes collided at the Dallas Air Show is being remembered fondly by a WWII aviation enthusiast who met him briefly earlier this year.
Arleigh Hertzler was thrilled when he got a chance to see the B-17 Flying Fortress in person.
“It's always neat to be able to see it up close, and see that part of history," Hertzler said. “The Texas Raiders was coming to Savannah, Georgia, I'm in Charleston, South Carolina. So I grabbed a couple of friends and took them down there to see the plane."
Little did he know he’d have the opportunity to speak with Dan Ragan, a WWII veteran who he said actually served on that plane.
“We flew between the carriers and the bad guys," Ragan can be heard saying in a video Hertzler shared with KHOU 11 News.
“He just opened up, he's a very, very humble, very, very sweet man," Hertzler said.
Ragan was one of the six victims who lost their lives in the deadly vintage plane crash at a Dallas Air Show over the weekend.
“All of them were wonderful and valuable people, but it was just, it was hard to see that he was he was one of the people that was lost," Hertzler said.
At the crash site, friends like David Arber stopped by to remember fellow pilot “Len” Root.
“He is just the kindest gentleman that you could come across to be good friends with," Arber said.
As they are remembered, Arleigh said the short time he spent with Ragan is something he’ll remember forever.
“... see that light in his eyes sharing something that he lived through ... we only got like, 40 minutes with him. But it's that different connection that he was able to give of a person, you know, to. It's not just a machine," Hertzler said.
When they weren't flying in air shows, both planes that collided were kept in a hangar in Conroe.