Mr. Menora and his granddaughters were taken to Israel for burial.
Sema Menora made sure she would have dinner ready when her husband and their four grandchildren got back from their quick plane trip to Mackinac Island.
Baked salmon, mashed potatoes, salad. "I knew they would be starved," she recalled today.
She expected them around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. She waited and waited and finally got a call: The plane had crashed. Something had gone wrong as they took off from the Mackinac County Airport in St. Ignace, she was told.
Her husband of 50 years, Moshe Menora, and three of their granddaughters -- Sara Klein, 17, Rebecca Menora, 16, and Rachel Menora, 14 -- were killed. A 13-year-old grandson, Natanial Menora, was thrown from the plane and suffered severe burns. All four had been visiting from Israel.
"He just wanted to do something with the children for a few hours," Sema Menora said. "They wanted to go in the plane. It was a special treat and he was a very skilled pilot.
"He had a very good relationship with his grandchildren. He enjoyed flying and wanted them to be part of what he loved, and they loved it."
As relatives planned a funeral service for this evening, investigators were at the small town of St. Ignace, inspecting the wreckage of the twin-engine Beechcraft Baron.
The plane had left Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling at 11:11 a.m. Tuesday and arrived at Mackinac at 1:56 p.m. Eastern time, according to flight records. Around 5 p.m., he refueled the plane and took off, but he had not reached 1,000 feet when the plane encountered difficulties, authorities said.
The plane crossed over northbound Interstate Highway 75 and struck the median barrier, flipping over and coming to rest on the shoulder of southbound I-75, according to the Mackinac County sheriff's office.
The boy's father, Sholom Menora -- who lost two daughters in the crash -- told relatives from the Michigan hospital that the plane had split in half. The boy was in the rear of the plane at takeoff and was ejected, Sema Menora said.
Relatives said they are worried about the boy, whose nickname is Yossie.
"Yossie. . .is in bad shape," said Sema Menora's sister, Chana Kovalsky, 71, of Chicago. "He is burned on 60 percent of his body. His father is there and his mother is on the way. We hope that things will get better."
Sema Menora said she last spoke with her husband Tuesday morning before they left. "I just said, 'Have fun, have a good trip and I'll see you for dinner,' " she said.
Another of Menora's grandchildren, Leah Klein, 9, was not on the plane. She flew to the United States with her sister, Sara, and will return home to Israel along with other family members, Kovalsky said.
"We are stunned by it," she said. "The loss of the young lives of children especially is never anything anyone can accept. It is God's way and we will just have to accept it."
Sarah Leahy, who helped run Menora's company, said Menora had taken his grandchildren on flights before, and they were excited about going to Mackinac Island. "Just beautiful kids," she said. "They loved their grandfather.
"It's surreal, it's so hard to believe," Leahy said. "He was a wonderful person. He helped a lot of people, he was very gracious. He was a quiet, philanthropic person. . .He treated people decently. He was a perfect gentleman. This is so undeserving."
Leahy said Menora was born in Haifa, Israel, and his father was a rabbi there. He joined the Israeli army and "served alongside Moshe Dayan in the Sinai in 1956," she said. He moved to New York in 1958 and met his wife, Sema, who was the daughter of a rabbi in Chicago and who was attending Stern College.
Menora ran a kosher meat market before getting into real estate, starting off with a two-flat and eventually acquiring property in the Edgewater community and throughout Illinois, she said.
"He wasn't one to retire. He was doing what he loved," Leahy said. "I feel I've lost the brother I never had. We started the company together, we built this company together. This is the saddest day of my life."
Relatives said Sara Klein was the daughter of Rabbi Zev Klein and Kelly Klein, who is Moshe Menora's oldest daughter. Rebecca and Rachel Menora were the daughters of Moshe Menora's son Shalom Menora.
Moshe Menora is also survived by another daughter, Miriam Schreiber.
The caskets are being transported by hearse to Or Torah Congregation in Skokie, where a funeral service is planned at 7 p.m. today, Kovalsky said. "The bodies will be buried as soon as possible and with proper dignity and respect."
The Beech Baron 58 multi-engine fixed-wing plane, manufactured in 1987, had a current certification with the serial number N3081N, according to the FAA Web site. Menora had leased hanger space from Signature Flight Support.
National Transportation Safety Board Investigator Aaron Sauer said officials do not have a preliminary cause for the accident yet, and probably won't for at least a week. But he added that weather did not appear to be a factor. The wreckage will be collected Thursday and examined.
Officials are interviewing witnesses and hope that the survivor will someday be able to provide some information. There were no control tower communications at St. Ignace.
"There was a lot of fire and I would say a lot of credit should go to the folks that responded at the scene. These were people in vehicles who stopped on the interstate [to help] and the authorities," Sauer said.
Upon the family's departure from the island, the plane again landed at St. Ignace, to refuel, before heading back to Chicago Executive Airport.
The plane took on 60 gallons of fuel at St. Ignace but the tanks were not filled to capacity.
Whether or not the fuel combined with the weight of the passengers was too much for the plane to get airborne is one factor being investigated, Sauer said but he added that it was too early to tell.
Aviation authorities and pilots say the Beechcraft Baron 58 is a reliable aircraft based on a design that has proven itself over decades.
"There's nothing inherently more dangerous or trickier about this aircraft than any other general aviation aircraft," said Chris Dancy, spokesman for the Frederick, Md.-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Investigators will consider a number of factors in attempting to determine the cause of Tuesday's crash, Dancy said. They include weather, mechanical issues and circumstances of the particular flight.
Although the aircraft accommodates six people, including two up front and four passengers in the rear, pilots must consider the total weight of the passengers and fuel, and how that weight is distributed, before taking off, experts say.
If there are more passengers on board, pilots are trained to carry less fuel. "It's a tradeoff," Dancy said.
Temperature is an important factor as well. On a warm day, the air is "thinner" and makes taking off more difficult, pilots say.
Records show the temperature at Mackinac County Airport was in the mid-70s Tuesday afternoon.
--Lisa Black, Richard Wronski, Serena Maria Daniels, Associated Press
Sema Menora made sure she would have dinner ready when her husband and their four grandchildren got back from their quick plane trip to Mackinac Island.
Baked salmon, mashed potatoes, salad. "I knew they would be starved," she recalled today.
She expected them around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. She waited and waited and finally got a call: The plane had crashed. Something had gone wrong as they took off from the Mackinac County Airport in St. Ignace, she was told.
Her husband of 50 years, Moshe Menora, and three of their granddaughters -- Sara Klein, 17, Rebecca Menora, 16, and Rachel Menora, 14 -- were killed. A 13-year-old grandson, Natanial Menora, was thrown from the plane and suffered severe burns. All four had been visiting from Israel.
"He just wanted to do something with the children for a few hours," Sema Menora said. "They wanted to go in the plane. It was a special treat and he was a very skilled pilot.
"He had a very good relationship with his grandchildren. He enjoyed flying and wanted them to be part of what he loved, and they loved it."
As relatives planned a funeral service for this evening, investigators were at the small town of St. Ignace, inspecting the wreckage of the twin-engine Beechcraft Baron.
The plane had left Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling at 11:11 a.m. Tuesday and arrived at Mackinac at 1:56 p.m. Eastern time, according to flight records. Around 5 p.m., he refueled the plane and took off, but he had not reached 1,000 feet when the plane encountered difficulties, authorities said.
The plane crossed over northbound Interstate Highway 75 and struck the median barrier, flipping over and coming to rest on the shoulder of southbound I-75, according to the Mackinac County sheriff's office.
The boy's father, Sholom Menora -- who lost two daughters in the crash -- told relatives from the Michigan hospital that the plane had split in half. The boy was in the rear of the plane at takeoff and was ejected, Sema Menora said.
Relatives said they are worried about the boy, whose nickname is Yossie.
"Yossie. . .is in bad shape," said Sema Menora's sister, Chana Kovalsky, 71, of Chicago. "He is burned on 60 percent of his body. His father is there and his mother is on the way. We hope that things will get better."
Sema Menora said she last spoke with her husband Tuesday morning before they left. "I just said, 'Have fun, have a good trip and I'll see you for dinner,' " she said.
Another of Menora's grandchildren, Leah Klein, 9, was not on the plane. She flew to the United States with her sister, Sara, and will return home to Israel along with other family members, Kovalsky said.
"We are stunned by it," she said. "The loss of the young lives of children especially is never anything anyone can accept. It is God's way and we will just have to accept it."
Sarah Leahy, who helped run Menora's company, said Menora had taken his grandchildren on flights before, and they were excited about going to Mackinac Island. "Just beautiful kids," she said. "They loved their grandfather.
"It's surreal, it's so hard to believe," Leahy said. "He was a wonderful person. He helped a lot of people, he was very gracious. He was a quiet, philanthropic person. . .He treated people decently. He was a perfect gentleman. This is so undeserving."
Leahy said Menora was born in Haifa, Israel, and his father was a rabbi there. He joined the Israeli army and "served alongside Moshe Dayan in the Sinai in 1956," she said. He moved to New York in 1958 and met his wife, Sema, who was the daughter of a rabbi in Chicago and who was attending Stern College.
Menora ran a kosher meat market before getting into real estate, starting off with a two-flat and eventually acquiring property in the Edgewater community and throughout Illinois, she said.
"He wasn't one to retire. He was doing what he loved," Leahy said. "I feel I've lost the brother I never had. We started the company together, we built this company together. This is the saddest day of my life."
Relatives said Sara Klein was the daughter of Rabbi Zev Klein and Kelly Klein, who is Moshe Menora's oldest daughter. Rebecca and Rachel Menora were the daughters of Moshe Menora's son Shalom Menora.
Moshe Menora is also survived by another daughter, Miriam Schreiber.
The caskets are being transported by hearse to Or Torah Congregation in Skokie, where a funeral service is planned at 7 p.m. today, Kovalsky said. "The bodies will be buried as soon as possible and with proper dignity and respect."
The Beech Baron 58 multi-engine fixed-wing plane, manufactured in 1987, had a current certification with the serial number N3081N, according to the FAA Web site. Menora had leased hanger space from Signature Flight Support.
National Transportation Safety Board Investigator Aaron Sauer said officials do not have a preliminary cause for the accident yet, and probably won't for at least a week. But he added that weather did not appear to be a factor. The wreckage will be collected Thursday and examined.
Officials are interviewing witnesses and hope that the survivor will someday be able to provide some information. There were no control tower communications at St. Ignace.
"There was a lot of fire and I would say a lot of credit should go to the folks that responded at the scene. These were people in vehicles who stopped on the interstate [to help] and the authorities," Sauer said.
Upon the family's departure from the island, the plane again landed at St. Ignace, to refuel, before heading back to Chicago Executive Airport.
The plane took on 60 gallons of fuel at St. Ignace but the tanks were not filled to capacity.
Whether or not the fuel combined with the weight of the passengers was too much for the plane to get airborne is one factor being investigated, Sauer said but he added that it was too early to tell.
Aviation authorities and pilots say the Beechcraft Baron 58 is a reliable aircraft based on a design that has proven itself over decades.
"There's nothing inherently more dangerous or trickier about this aircraft than any other general aviation aircraft," said Chris Dancy, spokesman for the Frederick, Md.-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Investigators will consider a number of factors in attempting to determine the cause of Tuesday's crash, Dancy said. They include weather, mechanical issues and circumstances of the particular flight.
Although the aircraft accommodates six people, including two up front and four passengers in the rear, pilots must consider the total weight of the passengers and fuel, and how that weight is distributed, before taking off, experts say.
If there are more passengers on board, pilots are trained to carry less fuel. "It's a tradeoff," Dancy said.
Temperature is an important factor as well. On a warm day, the air is "thinner" and makes taking off more difficult, pilots say.
Records show the temperature at Mackinac County Airport was in the mid-70s Tuesday afternoon.
--Lisa Black, Richard Wronski, Serena Maria Daniels, Associated Press
Mr. Menora and his granddaughters were taken to Israel for burial.
Sema Menora made sure she would have dinner ready when her husband and their four grandchildren got back from their quick plane trip to Mackinac Island.
Baked salmon, mashed potatoes, salad. "I knew they would be starved," she recalled today.
She expected them around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. She waited and waited and finally got a call: The plane had crashed. Something had gone wrong as they took off from the Mackinac County Airport in St. Ignace, she was told.
Her husband of 50 years, Moshe Menora, and three of their granddaughters -- Sara Klein, 17, Rebecca Menora, 16, and Rachel Menora, 14 -- were killed. A 13-year-old grandson, Natanial Menora, was thrown from the plane and suffered severe burns. All four had been visiting from Israel.
"He just wanted to do something with the children for a few hours," Sema Menora said. "They wanted to go in the plane. It was a special treat and he was a very skilled pilot.
"He had a very good relationship with his grandchildren. He enjoyed flying and wanted them to be part of what he loved, and they loved it."
As relatives planned a funeral service for this evening, investigators were at the small town of St. Ignace, inspecting the wreckage of the twin-engine Beechcraft Baron.
The plane had left Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling at 11:11 a.m. Tuesday and arrived at Mackinac at 1:56 p.m. Eastern time, according to flight records. Around 5 p.m., he refueled the plane and took off, but he had not reached 1,000 feet when the plane encountered difficulties, authorities said.
The plane crossed over northbound Interstate Highway 75 and struck the median barrier, flipping over and coming to rest on the shoulder of southbound I-75, according to the Mackinac County sheriff's office.
The boy's father, Sholom Menora -- who lost two daughters in the crash -- told relatives from the Michigan hospital that the plane had split in half. The boy was in the rear of the plane at takeoff and was ejected, Sema Menora said.
Relatives said they are worried about the boy, whose nickname is Yossie.
"Yossie. . .is in bad shape," said Sema Menora's sister, Chana Kovalsky, 71, of Chicago. "He is burned on 60 percent of his body. His father is there and his mother is on the way. We hope that things will get better."
Sema Menora said she last spoke with her husband Tuesday morning before they left. "I just said, 'Have fun, have a good trip and I'll see you for dinner,' " she said.
Another of Menora's grandchildren, Leah Klein, 9, was not on the plane. She flew to the United States with her sister, Sara, and will return home to Israel along with other family members, Kovalsky said.
"We are stunned by it," she said. "The loss of the young lives of children especially is never anything anyone can accept. It is God's way and we will just have to accept it."
Sarah Leahy, who helped run Menora's company, said Menora had taken his grandchildren on flights before, and they were excited about going to Mackinac Island. "Just beautiful kids," she said. "They loved their grandfather.
"It's surreal, it's so hard to believe," Leahy said. "He was a wonderful person. He helped a lot of people, he was very gracious. He was a quiet, philanthropic person. . .He treated people decently. He was a perfect gentleman. This is so undeserving."
Leahy said Menora was born in Haifa, Israel, and his father was a rabbi there. He joined the Israeli army and "served alongside Moshe Dayan in the Sinai in 1956," she said. He moved to New York in 1958 and met his wife, Sema, who was the daughter of a rabbi in Chicago and who was attending Stern College.
Menora ran a kosher meat market before getting into real estate, starting off with a two-flat and eventually acquiring property in the Edgewater community and throughout Illinois, she said.
"He wasn't one to retire. He was doing what he loved," Leahy said. "I feel I've lost the brother I never had. We started the company together, we built this company together. This is the saddest day of my life."
Relatives said Sara Klein was the daughter of Rabbi Zev Klein and Kelly Klein, who is Moshe Menora's oldest daughter. Rebecca and Rachel Menora were the daughters of Moshe Menora's son Shalom Menora.
Moshe Menora is also survived by another daughter, Miriam Schreiber.
The caskets are being transported by hearse to Or Torah Congregation in Skokie, where a funeral service is planned at 7 p.m. today, Kovalsky said. "The bodies will be buried as soon as possible and with proper dignity and respect."
The Beech Baron 58 multi-engine fixed-wing plane, manufactured in 1987, had a current certification with the serial number N3081N, according to the FAA Web site. Menora had leased hanger space from Signature Flight Support.
National Transportation Safety Board Investigator Aaron Sauer said officials do not have a preliminary cause for the accident yet, and probably won't for at least a week. But he added that weather did not appear to be a factor. The wreckage will be collected Thursday and examined.
Officials are interviewing witnesses and hope that the survivor will someday be able to provide some information. There were no control tower communications at St. Ignace.
"There was a lot of fire and I would say a lot of credit should go to the folks that responded at the scene. These were people in vehicles who stopped on the interstate [to help] and the authorities," Sauer said.
Upon the family's departure from the island, the plane again landed at St. Ignace, to refuel, before heading back to Chicago Executive Airport.
The plane took on 60 gallons of fuel at St. Ignace but the tanks were not filled to capacity.
Whether or not the fuel combined with the weight of the passengers was too much for the plane to get airborne is one factor being investigated, Sauer said but he added that it was too early to tell.
Aviation authorities and pilots say the Beechcraft Baron 58 is a reliable aircraft based on a design that has proven itself over decades.
"There's nothing inherently more dangerous or trickier about this aircraft than any other general aviation aircraft," said Chris Dancy, spokesman for the Frederick, Md.-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Investigators will consider a number of factors in attempting to determine the cause of Tuesday's crash, Dancy said. They include weather, mechanical issues and circumstances of the particular flight.
Although the aircraft accommodates six people, including two up front and four passengers in the rear, pilots must consider the total weight of the passengers and fuel, and how that weight is distributed, before taking off, experts say.
If there are more passengers on board, pilots are trained to carry less fuel. "It's a tradeoff," Dancy said.
Temperature is an important factor as well. On a warm day, the air is "thinner" and makes taking off more difficult, pilots say.
Records show the temperature at Mackinac County Airport was in the mid-70s Tuesday afternoon.
--Lisa Black, Richard Wronski, Serena Maria Daniels, Associated Press
Sema Menora made sure she would have dinner ready when her husband and their four grandchildren got back from their quick plane trip to Mackinac Island.
Baked salmon, mashed potatoes, salad. "I knew they would be starved," she recalled today.
She expected them around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. She waited and waited and finally got a call: The plane had crashed. Something had gone wrong as they took off from the Mackinac County Airport in St. Ignace, she was told.
Her husband of 50 years, Moshe Menora, and three of their granddaughters -- Sara Klein, 17, Rebecca Menora, 16, and Rachel Menora, 14 -- were killed. A 13-year-old grandson, Natanial Menora, was thrown from the plane and suffered severe burns. All four had been visiting from Israel.
"He just wanted to do something with the children for a few hours," Sema Menora said. "They wanted to go in the plane. It was a special treat and he was a very skilled pilot.
"He had a very good relationship with his grandchildren. He enjoyed flying and wanted them to be part of what he loved, and they loved it."
As relatives planned a funeral service for this evening, investigators were at the small town of St. Ignace, inspecting the wreckage of the twin-engine Beechcraft Baron.
The plane had left Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling at 11:11 a.m. Tuesday and arrived at Mackinac at 1:56 p.m. Eastern time, according to flight records. Around 5 p.m., he refueled the plane and took off, but he had not reached 1,000 feet when the plane encountered difficulties, authorities said.
The plane crossed over northbound Interstate Highway 75 and struck the median barrier, flipping over and coming to rest on the shoulder of southbound I-75, according to the Mackinac County sheriff's office.
The boy's father, Sholom Menora -- who lost two daughters in the crash -- told relatives from the Michigan hospital that the plane had split in half. The boy was in the rear of the plane at takeoff and was ejected, Sema Menora said.
Relatives said they are worried about the boy, whose nickname is Yossie.
"Yossie. . .is in bad shape," said Sema Menora's sister, Chana Kovalsky, 71, of Chicago. "He is burned on 60 percent of his body. His father is there and his mother is on the way. We hope that things will get better."
Sema Menora said she last spoke with her husband Tuesday morning before they left. "I just said, 'Have fun, have a good trip and I'll see you for dinner,' " she said.
Another of Menora's grandchildren, Leah Klein, 9, was not on the plane. She flew to the United States with her sister, Sara, and will return home to Israel along with other family members, Kovalsky said.
"We are stunned by it," she said. "The loss of the young lives of children especially is never anything anyone can accept. It is God's way and we will just have to accept it."
Sarah Leahy, who helped run Menora's company, said Menora had taken his grandchildren on flights before, and they were excited about going to Mackinac Island. "Just beautiful kids," she said. "They loved their grandfather.
"It's surreal, it's so hard to believe," Leahy said. "He was a wonderful person. He helped a lot of people, he was very gracious. He was a quiet, philanthropic person. . .He treated people decently. He was a perfect gentleman. This is so undeserving."
Leahy said Menora was born in Haifa, Israel, and his father was a rabbi there. He joined the Israeli army and "served alongside Moshe Dayan in the Sinai in 1956," she said. He moved to New York in 1958 and met his wife, Sema, who was the daughter of a rabbi in Chicago and who was attending Stern College.
Menora ran a kosher meat market before getting into real estate, starting off with a two-flat and eventually acquiring property in the Edgewater community and throughout Illinois, she said.
"He wasn't one to retire. He was doing what he loved," Leahy said. "I feel I've lost the brother I never had. We started the company together, we built this company together. This is the saddest day of my life."
Relatives said Sara Klein was the daughter of Rabbi Zev Klein and Kelly Klein, who is Moshe Menora's oldest daughter. Rebecca and Rachel Menora were the daughters of Moshe Menora's son Shalom Menora.
Moshe Menora is also survived by another daughter, Miriam Schreiber.
The caskets are being transported by hearse to Or Torah Congregation in Skokie, where a funeral service is planned at 7 p.m. today, Kovalsky said. "The bodies will be buried as soon as possible and with proper dignity and respect."
The Beech Baron 58 multi-engine fixed-wing plane, manufactured in 1987, had a current certification with the serial number N3081N, according to the FAA Web site. Menora had leased hanger space from Signature Flight Support.
National Transportation Safety Board Investigator Aaron Sauer said officials do not have a preliminary cause for the accident yet, and probably won't for at least a week. But he added that weather did not appear to be a factor. The wreckage will be collected Thursday and examined.
Officials are interviewing witnesses and hope that the survivor will someday be able to provide some information. There were no control tower communications at St. Ignace.
"There was a lot of fire and I would say a lot of credit should go to the folks that responded at the scene. These were people in vehicles who stopped on the interstate [to help] and the authorities," Sauer said.
Upon the family's departure from the island, the plane again landed at St. Ignace, to refuel, before heading back to Chicago Executive Airport.
The plane took on 60 gallons of fuel at St. Ignace but the tanks were not filled to capacity.
Whether or not the fuel combined with the weight of the passengers was too much for the plane to get airborne is one factor being investigated, Sauer said but he added that it was too early to tell.
Aviation authorities and pilots say the Beechcraft Baron 58 is a reliable aircraft based on a design that has proven itself over decades.
"There's nothing inherently more dangerous or trickier about this aircraft than any other general aviation aircraft," said Chris Dancy, spokesman for the Frederick, Md.-based Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Investigators will consider a number of factors in attempting to determine the cause of Tuesday's crash, Dancy said. They include weather, mechanical issues and circumstances of the particular flight.
Although the aircraft accommodates six people, including two up front and four passengers in the rear, pilots must consider the total weight of the passengers and fuel, and how that weight is distributed, before taking off, experts say.
If there are more passengers on board, pilots are trained to carry less fuel. "It's a tradeoff," Dancy said.
Temperature is an important factor as well. On a warm day, the air is "thinner" and makes taking off more difficult, pilots say.
Records show the temperature at Mackinac County Airport was in the mid-70s Tuesday afternoon.
--Lisa Black, Richard Wronski, Serena Maria Daniels, Associated Press
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