Montana crash kills ex-Macomb County pilot
Former Microsoft executive also killed
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
PUBLISHED: June 27, 2006[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
By Mitch Hotts[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
Macomb Daily Staff Writer[/FONT]
A former Macomb County man, who relatives said lived for airplanes, died over the weekend while giving flying lessons to a former Microsoft executive in Montana.
Jason Barton, 31, a former Macomb Township resident and a U.S. Air Force reservist, was killed Saturday afternoon in Big Timber, Mont., after the aircraft he was in crashed and burned shortly after takeoff, according to Montana television reports.
Barton was instructing venture capitalist Jeffrey Harbers, 54, of Medina, Wash., but federal investigators were unable to determine who was flying. Both bodies were badly burned in the incident.
"For all of his life, Jason wanted to be an astronaut," said his mother, Katheryn Barton of Macomb Township, on Monday. "He knew he had to start somewhere so he wanted to be a pilot with hopes of someday becoming an astronaut."
As a youngster, Barton would ride his bicycle to the former Berz-Macomb Airport to watch the planes take off and land, his family said. That's when he realized his dream of becoming an astronaut would have to go through becoming a pilot.
On Saturday, Barton was giving lessons to Harbers in a new PC12/47 single-engine turboprop plane owned by Harbers when the aircraft went down about one mile from the Big Timber Airport and burst into flames, according to the Seattle Times.
The plane was registered to Harbers' venture capital firm, JMH Capital LLC in Medina, Wash., according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Harbers, 54, played a key role in the development of many software projects for Microsoft during his career there, including the first version of the Office for Macintosh computers, the newspaper reported.
For Barton, being a private instructor for aspiring pilots was a job but also something he loved to do, his family said.
"Not just because he's my son, but I truly feel Jason was the kind of person that anyone who would meet him found him to be a genuinely wonderful person, just a fine young man," his mother said.
His father, Michael Barton, recalled one episode involving his son as a youngster trying to decide what to dress up as for Halloween.
"I said 'Why don't you be a frog and hop from house to house,'" Michael Barton said. "And he looked at me and said, 'I'm going to dress like an eagle and fly.' He always was thinking about flying."
Barton graduated in 1992 from Chippewa Valley High School where he was a member of the jazz, marching and symphonic bands. He later graduated from Wayne State University and was currently working on a master's degree.
He served eight years with the U.S. Army, and then joined the Army reserves before transferring to the Air Force reserves. Over the years he held a number of aviation-related jobs but stayed active in the reserves, first being assigned to Selfridge Air National Guard Base before being transferred to McConnell Air National Guard Base in Wichita, Kan.
Barton also developed his own Web site on the Internet to chronicle his many awards and accomplishments, jasonbarton.net.
In addition to his parents, he is survived by his wife, Alexandra Hoffmann-Barton, and siblings, Jonathan and Jodi Barton.
Funeral arrangements are being directed by Gramer Funeral Home, Diener Chapel, Shelby Township.
Click here to return to story:
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/062706/loc_barton001.shtml
