Local woman’s dream ends on doomed flight
By Jim Sparks
Julie Gottesman’s dream was a week away when her plane crashed into a California hillside Monday.
The Central Valley High School graduate was on her first training flight as a flight attendant when the pilot radioed there was gunfire aboard the Pacific Southwest Airlines jet. The plane crashed in a cattle ranch and exploded.
“She was going to graduate from the airline school a week from today,” her father, Gary Gottesman, said Tuesday morning. “Everything was upbeat. Everything was great.”
The flight school in San Diego was the start of what his 20-year-old daughter always wanted. “Every young girl wants to be an airline stewardess — there’s all that glamour,” Gottesman said.
He was “apprehensive, like any father” at the idea of his daughter flying for a living, but relieved she wasn’t in a place like the Middle East. Then Monday, Gottesman and his wife, Gloria, heard that a plane had gone down in Central California.
“Being parents, we naturally made inquiries as to flight numbers and so forth,” Gottesman said. The couple figured the chances were almost zero their daughter was on the plane, until PSA officials called with the news.
Julie, who enjoyed water skiing and riding horses, had two sisters, Denise, 22, and Lisa, 18. They are granddaughters of Eugene Gottesman, former rabbi of Spokane’s Temple Beth Shalom.
Julie attended Central Valley High School and Spokane Falls Community College. She also took classes at Eastern Washington University. At SFCC, she met Michelle Feldhausen, whose interest in being a flight attendant rubbed off.
Some time ago, Feldhausen wrote to airlines about becoming a flight attendant. “I never followed up on it,” Feldhausen said. “(Gottesman) said to me one day, ‘Michelle, do you still have those addresses?’ and I said, ‘Sure,’ and I gave them to her.”
Gottesman had considered working in New York City, Feldhausen said, but decided it was too expensive. The two friends, who also worked at the Crescent department store, had lunch together Friday at Cyrus O’Leary’s when Gottesman came home for a weekend.
“She was very excited about it, this was something she had always wanted to do,” Feldhausen said. Gottesman told Feldhausen the flight school “made college look like preschool.”
Secure in her mastery of a thick training manual, Gottesman looked forward to her first training flight, Feldhausen said. “She was telling me that this weekend she would be in Seattle and the week after that she would be in Ontario,” Feldhausen said.
“I went home thinking it would be very glamorous and exciting, like I wanted to do it too.”
Monday night, Feldhausen saw on television that a plane went down. “My family said, ‘Don’t worry about it; there are lots of flights, Michelle.’” She learned Gottesman was on board when she read the newspaper Tuesday morning. “I still haven’t really realized it’s happened,” Feldhausen said.
—From The Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle; Wednesday, December 9, 1987
By Jim Sparks
Julie Gottesman’s dream was a week away when her plane crashed into a California hillside Monday.
The Central Valley High School graduate was on her first training flight as a flight attendant when the pilot radioed there was gunfire aboard the Pacific Southwest Airlines jet. The plane crashed in a cattle ranch and exploded.
“She was going to graduate from the airline school a week from today,” her father, Gary Gottesman, said Tuesday morning. “Everything was upbeat. Everything was great.”
The flight school in San Diego was the start of what his 20-year-old daughter always wanted. “Every young girl wants to be an airline stewardess — there’s all that glamour,” Gottesman said.
He was “apprehensive, like any father” at the idea of his daughter flying for a living, but relieved she wasn’t in a place like the Middle East. Then Monday, Gottesman and his wife, Gloria, heard that a plane had gone down in Central California.
“Being parents, we naturally made inquiries as to flight numbers and so forth,” Gottesman said. The couple figured the chances were almost zero their daughter was on the plane, until PSA officials called with the news.
Julie, who enjoyed water skiing and riding horses, had two sisters, Denise, 22, and Lisa, 18. They are granddaughters of Eugene Gottesman, former rabbi of Spokane’s Temple Beth Shalom.
Julie attended Central Valley High School and Spokane Falls Community College. She also took classes at Eastern Washington University. At SFCC, she met Michelle Feldhausen, whose interest in being a flight attendant rubbed off.
Some time ago, Feldhausen wrote to airlines about becoming a flight attendant. “I never followed up on it,” Feldhausen said. “(Gottesman) said to me one day, ‘Michelle, do you still have those addresses?’ and I said, ‘Sure,’ and I gave them to her.”
Gottesman had considered working in New York City, Feldhausen said, but decided it was too expensive. The two friends, who also worked at the Crescent department store, had lunch together Friday at Cyrus O’Leary’s when Gottesman came home for a weekend.
“She was very excited about it, this was something she had always wanted to do,” Feldhausen said. Gottesman told Feldhausen the flight school “made college look like preschool.”
Secure in her mastery of a thick training manual, Gottesman looked forward to her first training flight, Feldhausen said. “She was telling me that this weekend she would be in Seattle and the week after that she would be in Ontario,” Feldhausen said.
“I went home thinking it would be very glamorous and exciting, like I wanted to do it too.”
Monday night, Feldhausen saw on television that a plane went down. “My family said, ‘Don’t worry about it; there are lots of flights, Michelle.’” She learned Gottesman was on board when she read the newspaper Tuesday morning. “I still haven’t really realized it’s happened,” Feldhausen said.
—From The Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle; Wednesday, December 9, 1987
Local woman’s dream ends on doomed flight
By Jim Sparks
Julie Gottesman’s dream was a week away when her plane crashed into a California hillside Monday.
The Central Valley High School graduate was on her first training flight as a flight attendant when the pilot radioed there was gunfire aboard the Pacific Southwest Airlines jet. The plane crashed in a cattle ranch and exploded.
“She was going to graduate from the airline school a week from today,” her father, Gary Gottesman, said Tuesday morning. “Everything was upbeat. Everything was great.”
The flight school in San Diego was the start of what his 20-year-old daughter always wanted. “Every young girl wants to be an airline stewardess — there’s all that glamour,” Gottesman said.
He was “apprehensive, like any father” at the idea of his daughter flying for a living, but relieved she wasn’t in a place like the Middle East. Then Monday, Gottesman and his wife, Gloria, heard that a plane had gone down in Central California.
“Being parents, we naturally made inquiries as to flight numbers and so forth,” Gottesman said. The couple figured the chances were almost zero their daughter was on the plane, until PSA officials called with the news.
Julie, who enjoyed water skiing and riding horses, had two sisters, Denise, 22, and Lisa, 18. They are granddaughters of Eugene Gottesman, former rabbi of Spokane’s Temple Beth Shalom.
Julie attended Central Valley High School and Spokane Falls Community College. She also took classes at Eastern Washington University. At SFCC, she met Michelle Feldhausen, whose interest in being a flight attendant rubbed off.
Some time ago, Feldhausen wrote to airlines about becoming a flight attendant. “I never followed up on it,” Feldhausen said. “(Gottesman) said to me one day, ‘Michelle, do you still have those addresses?’ and I said, ‘Sure,’ and I gave them to her.”
Gottesman had considered working in New York City, Feldhausen said, but decided it was too expensive. The two friends, who also worked at the Crescent department store, had lunch together Friday at Cyrus O’Leary’s when Gottesman came home for a weekend.
“She was very excited about it, this was something she had always wanted to do,” Feldhausen said. Gottesman told Feldhausen the flight school “made college look like preschool.”
Secure in her mastery of a thick training manual, Gottesman looked forward to her first training flight, Feldhausen said. “She was telling me that this weekend she would be in Seattle and the week after that she would be in Ontario,” Feldhausen said.
“I went home thinking it would be very glamorous and exciting, like I wanted to do it too.”
Monday night, Feldhausen saw on television that a plane went down. “My family said, ‘Don’t worry about it; there are lots of flights, Michelle.’” She learned Gottesman was on board when she read the newspaper Tuesday morning. “I still haven’t really realized it’s happened,” Feldhausen said.
—From The Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle; Wednesday, December 9, 1987
By Jim Sparks
Julie Gottesman’s dream was a week away when her plane crashed into a California hillside Monday.
The Central Valley High School graduate was on her first training flight as a flight attendant when the pilot radioed there was gunfire aboard the Pacific Southwest Airlines jet. The plane crashed in a cattle ranch and exploded.
“She was going to graduate from the airline school a week from today,” her father, Gary Gottesman, said Tuesday morning. “Everything was upbeat. Everything was great.”
The flight school in San Diego was the start of what his 20-year-old daughter always wanted. “Every young girl wants to be an airline stewardess — there’s all that glamour,” Gottesman said.
He was “apprehensive, like any father” at the idea of his daughter flying for a living, but relieved she wasn’t in a place like the Middle East. Then Monday, Gottesman and his wife, Gloria, heard that a plane had gone down in Central California.
“Being parents, we naturally made inquiries as to flight numbers and so forth,” Gottesman said. The couple figured the chances were almost zero their daughter was on the plane, until PSA officials called with the news.
Julie, who enjoyed water skiing and riding horses, had two sisters, Denise, 22, and Lisa, 18. They are granddaughters of Eugene Gottesman, former rabbi of Spokane’s Temple Beth Shalom.
Julie attended Central Valley High School and Spokane Falls Community College. She also took classes at Eastern Washington University. At SFCC, she met Michelle Feldhausen, whose interest in being a flight attendant rubbed off.
Some time ago, Feldhausen wrote to airlines about becoming a flight attendant. “I never followed up on it,” Feldhausen said. “(Gottesman) said to me one day, ‘Michelle, do you still have those addresses?’ and I said, ‘Sure,’ and I gave them to her.”
Gottesman had considered working in New York City, Feldhausen said, but decided it was too expensive. The two friends, who also worked at the Crescent department store, had lunch together Friday at Cyrus O’Leary’s when Gottesman came home for a weekend.
“She was very excited about it, this was something she had always wanted to do,” Feldhausen said. Gottesman told Feldhausen the flight school “made college look like preschool.”
Secure in her mastery of a thick training manual, Gottesman looked forward to her first training flight, Feldhausen said. “She was telling me that this weekend she would be in Seattle and the week after that she would be in Ontario,” Feldhausen said.
“I went home thinking it would be very glamorous and exciting, like I wanted to do it too.”
Monday night, Feldhausen saw on television that a plane went down. “My family said, ‘Don’t worry about it; there are lots of flights, Michelle.’” She learned Gottesman was on board when she read the newspaper Tuesday morning. “I still haven’t really realized it’s happened,” Feldhausen said.
—From The Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle; Wednesday, December 9, 1987
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