Briton pilot killed in crash buried

Eight days after he died in a plane crash, Briton pilot Roy Bruce was laid to rest yesterday afternoon at the Cebu Memorial Park in Banilad, Cebu City.

The 58-year-old Bruce and his mechanic Romy Ofelia were killed last November 25 when Bruce's Extra 300 aerobatic airplane plunged into the waters off the South Reclamation Properties near Talisay City.

Bruce's widow, Lisa, his children and hundreds of friends and employees of his firm Bruce Fossil Stone International, paid their last respects to the aerobatic pilot. An aerobatic pilot is one who performs stunts while in flight in an aircraft, and Bruce was a licensed to do so along with his close friend Capt. Meynard Halili.

Halili failed to come for the eulogy but he sent a message to the family of his long-time friend Bruce.

"We talked much about aerobatics and aviation, but we talked more, much more, about our families. For a successful businessman and pilot, he still had dreams. They were big dreams for Lisa and their children," Halili's message read.

Halili also had a poem for Bruce entitled "High Flight", a portion of which said: "Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth; and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings."

After the requiem mass at the Redemptorist Church, the funeral went to Cempark where Msgr. Boy Alesna blessed the remains of the distinguished pilot while five Cessna planes and a piper plane flew overhead to show flowers and confetti.

Councilor Slyvan Jakosalem, also a close friend of Bruce, meanwhile said the Air Transportation Office has no official report yet declaring that the plane crash was due to pilot's error. - Ramil V. Ayuman