Last week, the world lost one of the funniest people I've ever met. MacKenzie "Mack" Bleth was young, in love with his girlfriend, Lindsey, and one hell of a pilot.
I met Mack through my best friend, Donna, up in Alaska. We immediately became friends. Donna's friends all know me, and I know them. We all hang out when I visit, and I just got to spend a few days with Mack this past July while I was in Juneau. I had the opportunity to fly with him while I was there, but since I'm a huge pussy about flying, and the weather wasn't ideal, we never made it up. Instead, he took us all to play frisbee golf and bowling. As usual, he was a total dork and made us laugh the whole time.
Mack had just taken a job in Gettysburg, PA to work for a new aviation company. He was on a contract job in Corning, NY to inspect power lines when investigators believe he clipped a line, got tangled, and crashed into an open space near the river.
What makes me mad about the whole situation, is I was told it was only his second day on the job, and he was flying a helicopter he wasn't familiar with. Why the HELL would this company send him up to inspect power lines when he wasn't ready? Maybe he said he was ready and convinced them to let him go. I don't know. But as the liable company, they should have sent a more experienced employee. He would have still been here today.
Being in California, I don't get to be near his friends or family to grieve with them. The best I have is Facebook and text messages/phone calls with our mutual friends. It's so hard to not be with your best friends while they're hurting. And also hard to not have anyone around who knew him so that I can grieve too. No, I didn't spend a lot of time with him, since we live in different states. But we used to text and talk on Facebook, and we still built a friendship. Living far apart didn't make us any less friends, and didn't make it any easier for me to learn that he was gone.
I hope all my friends in AK, his family in OR, and the few in CA can take some kind of comfort knowing that he died doing what he loved, and he didn't suffer at all (from what I was told). He's probably making fun of all of us for being sad. Laugh on, Mack. We hear you.
KCCO.
KCFO.
We'll never forget you.
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