Moving service as hero pilot farewelled

Main Stories, National
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The National, Monday 30th July 2012

By NATHAN MAWBY
HUNDREDS of family and friends bid a final farewell to hero pilot Russell “Rusty” Aitken, who died in a crash in PNG earlier this month.
The 42-year-old helicopter pilot, who helped rescue people trapped by flames in the Victorian bushfires on Black Saturday in 2009, died with two other crew members when his Hevilift helicopter went down near the Purari River in Gulf province.
Remembered as an outstanding pilot and instructor, friend and a loving family man, the former Westpac Life Saver rescue helicopter pilot’s final farewell saw the rescue chopper take off nearby in his honour as mourners, including 14-year-old son Jhi, and brother Marcus carried his coffin to a waiting hearse.
In a moving service, Aitken’s wife and childhood sweetheart from the age of 14, Kelly, fought off tears as she said goodbye.
“I have never been without Russell by my side, but now I must go on,” she said.
“Thank you Russell for sharing your life with me. I loved you so much and will miss you every day for the rest of my life.
“I will continue to be the best mum I can on behalf of both of us – our kids will always come first.
“Fly free now my darling, I have very happy memories of you, which will live with me forever, your Kells.”
Speaking of his father, Jhi revealed a dad who, while regularly overseas for lengthy periods, always had his son’s football matches videotaped so he could go through them in minute detail when he returned home.
“Before he left the house for the last time, he wrote up on our whiteboard ‘if it is to be, it is up to me’, now every single day I am going to live by this quote, not just for me but in my dad’s honour too,” he said.
“Dad, I will never forget you –there won’t be a day that goes by that I won’t think of you for the rest of my life.
“You will always be my mentor, including, of course, on the footy ground; you are my inspiration, you are my coach, you are my idol, you are my dad. I love you.”
Kyah lauded a father who daily read her the alphabet from the age of six months and taught her to play chess at three-years-old.
“Things will never be the same again and nothing I can say can compare to him,” she said. “I was so lucky to have such a wonderful father for the time I did. Like many fathers are to their children, he was my hero.
“I love you forever, Daddy,” she said. – www.heraldsun.com.au