NEW YORK (AP) – When Seuk Kim took off from Maryland last week with three small dogs on his plane, it was the latest of many volunteer flights he’s made to rescue animals in need.
After realizing a childhood dream of becoming a pilot, Kim transported cats and dogs from disaster areas, overcrowded shelters and other challenges – including a dog locked in a cargo hold for days – to rescue groups. He stopped other pilots from doing the same.
But Sunday’s trip to New York was the last. After apparently hitting a collision, Kim’s 1986 Mooney M20J crashed in a snowy forest in the Catskill Mountains, killing the 49-year-old driver and one of the dogs, authorities said. Two other children survived and were recovering Tuesday.
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“There are few people like Seuk in this country. He has no ulterior motives. He never wanted to be recognized,” said Sydney Galley, a flight attendant. “He just wanted to help.”
Whiskey — a 4-month-old Labrador-mix puppy found wrapped in snow with two broken legs — was doing well while awaiting surgery at Pieper Memorial Veterinary emergency and specialty hospital in Middletown, Connecticut. The videos showed the toddler being rubbed in the stomach, licking the staff member’s face and, later, looking around while the bandage on her leg was being changed.
The other surviving dog, an 18-month-old Yorkshire terrier mix named Pluto, was found on Monday with minor injuries. By Tuesday, Pluto was at the Schoharie Valley Animal Shelter, a New York organization that was ready to accept all three dogs. The third was a 5-pound (2.3-kg) puppy named Lisa, Galley said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday that the plane crashed under unknown circumstances in a mountainous area. National Transportation Safety Board investigators were at the scene of the accident.
Greene County Sheriff Peter Kusminsky said visibility was poor Sunday and that Kim sought permission to change his location because of the turbulence before the plane landed early in the morning.
Galley said the plane – Kim’s third plane, bought in recent months – had the ability to help find him in an emergency. However, it took authorities until midnight Sunday to find the plane, which was in about a foot of snow a few miles from the nearest road, the sheriff said.
Kim lived with his wife and their three children in Springfield, Virginia. Originally from South Korea, he “came to this country with little but a dream, and through hard work and perseverance, built a life of purpose and generosity,” cousin Christine Kim said in a Facebook message.
“Intelligent, spontaneous, and full of boundless generosity,” she combined a caring heart with a sense of fun, Kim’s family said in an online obituary.
Seuk Kim had worked in fields including public relations and marketing. His family said his hobbies included cooking and following baseball, but he had long dreamed of flying.
He eventually made that wish come true, and Galley said he had recently told his friends that he had gotten a job at an airline charter company.
“He was on top of the world,” she said.
Kim started flying rescue dogs four years ago and became a dedicated volunteer who handled up to three flights a week and helped train other pilots, Galley said. Undeterred by big dogs, cats that other pilots didn’t want to fly, or potty accidents, she answered almost any request with a smile and “sure, I can,” she recalled.
Earlier this year, he flew “Connie the container dog,” a dog found in a shipping container at the Port of Houston, according to Galley and elsewhere on the memorial’s website.
After Hurricane Helene hit parts of the Southeast this fall, Kim helped fly planes full of generators and other supplies to hard-hit western North Carolina and even bought a pickup truck to drive through the haystacks, Galley recalled.
Penny Edwards of Forever Changed Animal Rescue, one of the groups that Kim helped with Helene’s response, called her “a big deal not just for us but for the whole rescue community.”
“Our hearts are broken,” he wrote in an email on Tuesday.
Maggie Jackman Pryor, of the Animal Shelter of the Schoharie Valley, said Kim has helped save hundreds of animals over the years.
Among them was a dog and her five pups that she flew in October to Cathy West of Kuddles & Kisses K9 Rescue in Baltimore. The mixed-breed dog was on a list to be released at an overrun shelter in Tennessee, West said.
“He joined in trying to spread the word of commitment, to other pilots – that it is a good thing for these dogs to be saved so that they don’t die at home,” he said.
On Sunday, Galley said, Kim picked up four dogs at an airport in Virginia where her husband had just shipped them from Georgia. After excitedly telling her husband about her new job chartering an airline, Kim took off, dropped off the big dog at an airport in Maryland, and headed with the rest of them to Albany, New York.
He is believed to have apologized to his canine passengers as the plane descended.
“Always,” he said, “to put everyone before himself.”
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Joined by journalist Cedar Attansio gave.