Female pilot in crash lived life to the fullest

TACLOBAN CITY — Twenty-eight-year-old Rizza Simon often said that one should live life to the fullest.

"And it’s not how long you live, but it’s how you live your life," added Rizza, an Air Force lieutenant who was the only female pilot of a Sikorsky helicopter and one of just two women in the male-dominated PAF 505th Search and Rescue Group (the other is Lt. Rose Abarani).

She, along with six others, was killed when the Sikorsky S-76 she was co-piloting plunged into a hillside as they took off from a crash site in Puerto Princesa City Friday. The mother of Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes and five others perished in the first crash, involving a Bell-407 helicopter.

"She was a most special person," Lt. Benjamin Segovia, Rizza’s fiance for three years, told The STAR. The two met in 1994 when he was about to graduate from the PAF Flying School at Fernando Air Base in Lipa City, Batangas.

Rizza, who also graduated from the same flying school, and Segovia were planning to tie the knot by the end of this year, a decision they agreed upon even before she joined the 27th Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Program last year. (Ed: This writer was also a participant of the SSEAYP and became one of her close friends.)

Though they were separated due to their assignments, Segovia, who is based at the 220th Airlift Wing in Mactan, Cebu, always found time to talk to Rizza.

"I always talked to her wherever I was. I checked her condition," he said.

The two last talked to each other Friday morning. "She told me she would be back in seven to 10 days," he recalled. Rizza was sent by her commanding officer to a seven-day assignment at the 57th Tactical Wing at Bautista Air Base in Puerto Princesa City.

Rizza’s remains were transported by a C130 plane from Puerto Princesa to the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City the other day.

Killed along with Rizza in the crash were Capt. Jesus Tablada, the pilot; Airman First Class Mario Datu and Captains Vicente Castillo and Warren Lim, all paramedics; Dr. Christopher Blanco and a certain Sgt. Nemesio.