Dover-Foxcroft couple knew pilot Mainers reel at loss of old friend

DOVER-FOXCROFT – A Dover-Foxcroft family was reeling from the news that a childhood friend was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, an airplane terrorists deliberately crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center on Tuesday.

Pat David said Wednesday that her husband, Kenneth, had grown up with John Ogonowski of Dracut, Mass., who perished, along with 92 passengers who were on the scheduled flight from Boston to Los Angeles. .

“I was shocked,” Pat David said. A sister-in-law, who lives in Massachusetts, called the couple Tuesday and told them the sorrowful news, she said.

“Yesterday, we saw the news of what was going on and we knew that it would touch somebody in every walk of life, but we just didn’t know how,” she said, tearfully.

David said her husband and Ogonowski, 50, who was three years older, had grown up in the same neighborhood in Dracut. They remained friends after Ogonowski graduated from high school and left for the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. David followed his friend and attended the same school.

Later, Ogonowki was best man at the couple’s wedding.

After Ogonowski finished school, he enlisted in the Air Force where he became a lieutenant commander and piloted airplanes that were used as decoys for Air Force One, the presidential airplane, according to David. He later became a commercial pilot for American Airlines, according to David.

After the Davids moved to Maine more than 16 years ago, the only contact between Ogonowski and the Davids were the Christmas cards exchanged each year, she said.

“Distance and time kept us apart, but he was always in our hearts and minds,” Pat David said.

David said Ogonowski was a hard worker, honest and kind.

“He was just a great man, a great father and a great brother,” she said. Choking on her words, David said she and her husband would visit Ogonowski’s wife and three children as soon as they could and would offer whatever assistance they could provide.

“I just know he was loved by all,” she said.