Whiting pilots ID'd in Ala. plane crash

Two Marines died Friday in northern Alabama

Erin Gibson • egibson@pnj.com • March 18, 2008

David Yaggy wanted to be a pilot and U.S. Marine since he was 5 or 6 years old.
Growing up in Sparks, Md., as the second of Michael and Eleanora Yaggy's three children, David Yaggy had posters of airplanes in his room and built remote-controlled airplanes, recalled his brother, Alex Yaggy, 37, of Brooklyn, N.Y.
"David was an absolutely great guy, who was very kind and gentle and generous," Alex Yaggy said in a telephone interview Monday.
Maj. Yaggy, 34, of Pensacola, and 2nd Lt. Alexander N. Prezioso, 23, of Lake Worth, were in a T-34C Turbomentor, a two-seat training plane assigned to Whiting Field Naval Air Station, when it crashed Friday into Chandler Mountain about 60 miles north of Birmingham, Ala.
Their bodies were recovered Saturday and returned to Pensacola Naval Air Station for autopsies.
Two teams are investigating the crash.
At a news conference Monday, Capt. Dave Maloney, commander of Training Wing 5 at Whiting Field, would not speculate on the cause of the crash.
Maloney said 150 T-34C aircraft are used for training at Whiting Field. The last fatal crash in a T-34C was in 2000.
Monday was declared a no-fly day by the commander of Naval Air Training. All student aviators and their instructors met for a safety stand down.
Yaggy, a veteran Marine instructor, and Prezioso, his student, were flying out of Whiting Field for the first of three legs of the trip. They were headed to Huntsville, Ala., when they crashed.
Alex Yaggy offered his family's condolences to Prezioso's family.
"We have great sympathy for his family," he said.
Prezioso was a Marine for nearly two years. He was a 2006 graduate from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He was commissioned as an officer through a Platoon Leaders Course in 2006. He joined Training Squadron 6 in August.
Prezioso lived in Milton with his roommates from flight school. He is survived by his parents and a sister, who could not be reached for comment.
Yaggy was a Marine for 11½ years. He served in Operation Enduring Freedom from August 2001 to March 2002 in Afghanistan.
Yaggy served two tours in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom from January to August 2003 and August 2004 to February 2005. He graduated from the University of Richmond in 1996 and became an instructor at Whiting Field in February 2006.
"Our father was in the Marines and served in Vietnam," said Alex Yaggy, a former private pilot. "We all greatly admire and respect our father."
Alex Yaggy, a portfolio manager, said his brother was a quiet man who enjoyed spending time with his wife, Erin, and their daughter, Elizabeth, 18 months. Alex and David also served as each other's best man when each got married. They have a sister, Laura Harris, 33, who lives in New York City.