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The airport was a vital part of Ray Longhi’s life. It connected him to the world — the places he’d gone and the places he had yet to go.Decades ago, he moved his family into a house only a couple of blocks from Mesa’s Falcon Field Airport. When his kids were young, he would take them outside to watch the planes and shared everything he knew about them.On Tuesday, the 67-year-old father and grandfather was on his way to pick up his wife when a plane barreled past the end of a runway onto Greenfield Road, slamming into his red Lexus and killing him instantly.
Longhi’s family confirmed he was one of five people who died in the crash.
“He was incredibly loved, and him being gone leaves a giant hole in our family,” his daughter, Lorraine Longhi, 31, said Thursday. “I can only take solace in … how much he was loved and how much he loved other people.”
Longhi, a former reporter with The Arizona Republic, described her father as a student of history with an insatiable curiosity that he followed to far-flung cities throughout his life, almost always with a book in his hand.
She said her father was a giant of a man both in stature and personality. Adopted into an Italian American family from Yonkers, New York, he stood 6 foot 4 and weighed more than 200 pounds. But his size was deceptive; he was calm, considerate and was rarely angry.
“He was really jovial and good natured,” Longhi said. “In addition to being intelligent, he just ultimately wanted to engage with people about everything, whatever they were passionate talking about.”
Ray Longhi was an English major and spent two years at the University of Arizona before transferring to the University of California, Berkley.
He traveled to Taiwan where he ended up living for eight years and taught himself Mandarin Chinese while teaching English to students there. That’s where me met Ada Tsai, 64. They got married in 1990 and quickly started a family.
The birth of their son, Vincent, 34, and Lorraine three years later didn’t diminish their passion for adventure. They made travel part of their family dynamic.
“There were weekends when, growing up, my parents would shake me awake and just say, ‘Hey, do you want to go to this new city today?’ You know, just ’cause we could.”
Ray Longhi worked in and out of various aviation industries, often in sales. He once ran a microchip technology company out of the family’s home in Las Vegas. His jobs sometimes took him abroad for weeks and months at a time, but Lorraine Longhi said he always came home to take care of his wife and family.
Which made his failure to meet Tsai at the end of her shift on Tuesday more than a little worrisome.
Authorities have not yet publicly identified Ray Longhi as a victim of the crash. Lorraine Longhi said her father was only blocks away from his home on the edge of Falcon Field when it happened.
Witnesses told police a multimillion-dollar business jet never left the ground after attempting take off at about 4:45 p.m. After hitting Longhi’s car, the plane crashed into an orchard and burst into flames.
On board were family and friends headed to Provo, Utah. Police identified the four people killed on the plane as Drew Kimball, 44, Grahm Kimball, 12, Spencer Lindahl, 43, and Rustin Randall, 48. A teenager on the plane survived and was transported to the hospital with burns.
A preliminary incident report released by the Federal Aviation Administration said the crash was an accident that happened under “unknown circumstances.” The investigation is being handled by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Lorraine Longhi confirmed NTSB officials contacted her Thursday. The conversation left her confused and gutted — with dozens of questions that could take more than a year to resolve.
“Me and my family want answers about what happened,” she said between sobs. “My family is devastated. We’re angry. We’re confused. This should not have happened.”
In addition to his immediate family, Ray Longhi is survived by his 94-year-old mother, Rita Gerstle, his brother, Paul Longhi, and his sister, Lisa Sayegh.
Lorraine Longhi said her family has been overwhelmed with messages offering support. She said to honor her father they are directing donations to Sunshine Acres Children’s Home, a foster home in Mesa.
Her father never forgot that he was adopted, and Lorraine Longhi said he donated there “every opportunity he could, every holiday season.” It was part of who he was, she said.
Lorraine Longhi said she visited the crash site Thursday, to be near where her father died.
“He had so much life to live,” she said. “He still had plans.”
Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter for The Republic. Reach him at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on X @robertanglen.
Elena Santa Cruz is a criminal justice reporter for The Republic. Reach her at elena.santacruz@gannett.com. Follow her on X @ecsantacruz3.
