The Seattle Times Two killed in Eatonville plane crash were ‘a force of nature’ and a ‘fiercely loyal friend yesterday
When it came to outdoor adventure, few were more passionate than Steve Bleifuhs and John Henricks.
Bleifuhs, the longtime manager with King County’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks, was beloved among Washington’s competitive road cyclists, could change a flat tire faster than anyone and would sometimes race so far ahead of his group that he would get lost, his teammates said.
And at 34, Henricks left his forestry career to pursue his passion for aviation with the Washington National Guard, serving in Iraq and Kuwait and specializing in repairing Black Hawk helicopters while running his plane maintenance business on the side.
The unexpected loss of both men from a small-plane crash south of Eatonville on Saturday has left their families and communities reeling.
Officials have not yet identified who died in the crash. But family members and friends confirmed Bleifuhs, a 53-year-old Issaquah father of two, and Henricks, a 40-year-old Eatonville father of three, as the victims.
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating what caused Henricks’ single-engine, two-seat Citabria plane to plummet from the sky shortly after takeoff.
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“Everybody is devastated because of the suddenness” said Josh Baldi, director of the King County Water and Land Resources Division and Bleifuhs’ boss. “We’re going to be processing this for a long time.”
Michael McGuffin recalled waving from the runway as Bleifuhs, his longtime cycling buddy, climbed into the seat behind Henricks, grinned and gave a thumbs-up through the window.
They had all met just the day before, as McGuffin, Bleifuhs and Henricks’ wife, Roslyn, were scoping out gravel trails for a future bike race.
Bleifuhs, a plane enthusiast who once thought of being a commercial pilot, was thrilled when Henricks invited him to see the landscape from above, McGuffin said.
But shortly after takeoff, McGuffin saw the plane go down from the corner of his eye, followed by sirens. Minutes later, Roslyn Henricks spotted an alert of a nearby aircraft emergency.
“I just knew,” she said. “It unfolded so quickly.”
Steve Bleifuhs
Outdoor adventures were part of Bleifuhs’ life from the start, said his brother, Mark Bleifuhs.
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They grew up doing “everything they could outdoors,” including canoeing, biking, fishing and “probably a lot of stuff [they] shouldn’t have.”
Even Steve Bleifuhs’ first job involved cycling. At 14, he loaded newspapers into the baskets of his mother’s blue Schwinn and delivered them throughout the Madison, Wis., neighborhood where they grew up, said his mother, Kathy Behrend.
He was almost like a twin to his brother, with one only needing to say a few words before the other would burst into laughter.
“People in the room or the table who would look at us like we were crazy, but to us, it made sense,” Mark Bleifuhs said. “That’s going to leave the hugest void in my heart right now.”
Steve Bleifuhs worked as a bicycle mechanic while studying economics at the University of Wisconsin, and later in Seattle’s University District, where he moved to in 1994.
He then started a nearly 30-year career working at the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, where he eventually managed a team of about 70 people.
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“On the one hand, he was very serious and committed — what you would expect out of a talented professional,” Baldi, his boss, said. “But he had this incredible playful streak.”
Bleifuhs never left his love of cycling and the outdoors at home, always egging Baldi to join him on bike trips during the seven years they worked together.
As a 12-year member of the amateur Taco Time NW Cycling Team, Bleifuhs grew as a leader in Washington’s competitive bicycling community, taking rookies under his wing, officiating races and supporting his teammates to victory.
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While competitive, Bleifuhs always loved the sport’s camaraderie more than winning, especially when it included socializing with other teams at Chuck’s Hop Shop in Seattle’s Seward neighborhood after a ride, McGuffin said.
“He just loved it — he was in his absolute element mixing with the other teams, teasing, sharing stuff between friends,” teammate Brett Robertson said. “Everybody on our team had a story about him.”
Most of Bleifuhs’ teammates learned of his death Sunday morning and have been struggling to comprehend it ever since, Robertson said.
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“I can’t describe it any other way than he’s larger than life,” McGuffin said. “He was a force of nature. He was significant.”
John Henricks
John Henricks always knew what he wanted.
He spent months dating Roslyn, an exchange student from Australia who came to Oregon State University to study forestry.
Roslyn’s mother “sternly warned her” not to fall in love with an American, Roslyn said Wednesday. But that didn’t seem to matter for either.
After Roslyn moved back to Australia, John Henricks got a job at a sawmill, saved up until he could afford a “big sparkly ring,” flew to Australia and proposed to her at the country’s highest peak.
“If he knew what he wanted, he was going to go for it — there was not going to be any of this, ‘Let’s date for 10 years and figure it out,” Roslyn Henricks said. “He was so funny and just a great guy.”
John Henricks took the same approach in 2018, when — after spending more than a decade supervising and managing sawmills — he left his career to pursue his love of flying, becoming a Black Hawk helicopter mechanic for the Army National Guard.
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“[He was] old enough to be father to many of his peers, but [outgunned] them physically and mentally along the way by sheer determination,” his brother, Edward, and wife wrote in an email.
Henricks later got his FAA Aircraft Airframe and Powerplant license so he could run his own aircraft maintenance business in Eatonville, where he also volunteered as the manager of a local airport. He was planning on getting a commercial pilot’s license in August, his family wrote.
Having grown up at a lakeside childhood home in Albany, Ore., Henricks used any opportunity to fly, fish, camp, swim and scuba dive with his children, ages 11, 9 and 6. He also loved taking them on random trips to the gas station for “secret-from-mum candy,” his family wrote.
While he spent as much time as he could flying and in the outdoors, John Henricks’ true “happy place” was at home with his wife and three kids, Roslyn Henricks said. The “fiercely loyal friend” rarely needed to leave home to socialize, as his friends often drove by his Eatonville home to spend time with him.
“This was his place and he loved being here,” Roslyn Henricks said. “He loved his life.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified where Steve Bleifuhs attended college, which was the University of Wisconsin.
Catalina Gaitán: 206-464-8276 or cgaitan@seattletimes.com. Catalina Gaitán is a staff reporter for The Seattle Times.
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