1996-04-14 04:00:00 PDT PESCADERO; WYOMING -- Four days after her takeoff on what was to have been a joyous, record-setting cross-country flight, the body of 7-year-old pilot Jessica Dubroff was returned for burial Saturday, along with those of her father and her flight instructor.

At San Francisco International Airport after a flight from Denver, Jessica's mother, Lisa Blair Hathaway of Pescadero, said she wants her daughter to be remembered

"with a big smile. She smiled from her soul. She shined through every part of her body."

Hathaway wept for a full minute in the arms of a friend after stepping off the plane, and then turned to face the crush of reporters and cameras.

She wept again as she arrived at her home in Pescadero, and sobbed silently in the arms of Chris Dutsch who owns a woodworking and sign painting shop next to her home, a place where Jessica helped out. There was a message in a small, decorative box taped next to the front door. She read it, cried again, and walked inside.

Jessica, her father Lloyd, 57, of San Mateo, and flight instructor Joe Reid, 52, of Half Moon Bay, were killed Thursday when their single engine Cessna Cardinal, attempting a takeoff in stormy weather, crashed into a street in a residential area of Cheyenne.

In Cheyenne, Coroner Bill Ryan said that all three died from massive traumatic injuries caused by the crash impact.

Jessica was on the second leg of her attempt to become the youngest person to fly across the United States, a venture that triggered national publicity.

Reid probably at controls

A preliminary investigation has disclosed that Reid was probably at the controls when the plane crashed. Safety experts came to that conclusion based on the extensive fractures on Reid's hand. But an official determination of who was at the controls and why the crash occurred is months away.

Investigators have also said that the plane was overloaded at takeoff, a conclusion that Lisa Hathaway disputed during a 15-minute airport news conference.

"That plane could've held four adults," she said. "I packed the food, I packed the water. How can that equal more than two adults?" she asked.

National mourning followed the crash, but then there was recrimination from critics who believe that Jessica was too young to have undertaken such a risk.

Hathaway, a woman who customarily infuses spiritual thoughts into her conversation, is unfazed by the criticism. She met reporters in the company of her 3-year-old daughter, Jasmine, held in a pink sling, and her son Joshua, 9.

"I bless them'

"I have a child I don't get to hold, but I don't have a loss," she said, describing herself as "in a place of rest."

Even so, "no part of me wants to survey what happened. It's not important," she said. If bad weather caused the crash that killed her daughter, "they mis-chose and went into the sky and it didn't work. I bless them."

Hathaway said that she "can't bear the thought of children being cut off from something as valuable as flying."

Nevertheless, she acknowledged, "If I didn't have two children, I might say my life doesn't matter."

The American flag flew at half staff in front of the post office in Pescadero, where Jessica had lived with her mother and siblings for the past year. The flagpole was surrounded by flowers, including a big bouquet of roses, with a white rose in the center for the young pilot and yellow roses for her father and Reid, the flight instructor.

More bouquets, a teddy bear and a stuffed rabbit were placed on the doorstep of Jessica's house on North Street.

At the Three Zero Cafe, a pilot's hangout at the Half Moon Bay airport, the centerpiece was a table filled with flowers, teddy bears and poems written on scraps of paper by children from Pescadero and Hal Moon Bay.

"It (the crash) was very, very sad. I feel very badly for the mother, partly because she's been taking so much ridicule," said Beverly Engel of Half Moon Bay. "As a mother, I hurt for her, because of the terrible loss that she had. I think people should not be so quick to judge and love her (Lisa Hathaway) and all the family."

Memorial service planned

A memorial service is planned Sunday afternoon in Cheyenne for the crash victims.

A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board indicated that the Cessna Cardinal was overloaded when it took off Thursday morning in rain and high winds. The plane's maximum gross takeoff weight is 2,500 pounds.

The plane itself weighed 1,580 pounds. Together, Jessica, who weighed 55 pounds, her computer consultant father, and flight instructor Reid, a stockbroker, weighed about 450 pounds.

Dave Foster of Pacifica, who works at the fuel concession at Half Moon Bay Airport, said that he topped off the plane's two fuel tanks with 27 gallons shortly before the flight. Having refueled in Elko, Nev., Rock Springs, Wyo., and Cheyenne, the airplane was believed to have been carrying a full load of 50 gallons, weighing about 300 pounds, when it crashed.

That left a margin of 170 pounds to the maximum weight capacity, and witnesses at the takeoff in Half Moon Bay said that the plane carried a load of luggage.

Nevertheless, said Joe Gerusa of the Half Moon Bay Flying Club, the Cessna took off easily and did not appear to be overloaded.

The lighter air at Cheyenne, which is at an elevation of 6,000 feet, coupled with strong, gusting wind, may have impaired the plane's takeoff efficiency, investigators said.

A pathologist's report showed that Reid suffered severe hand and wrist injuries, a finding which suggests that he, not Jessica, may have been at the controls at the moment of impact. The investigation continues, however, because the plane was equipped with dual controls.

Reid was half owner of the plane and, as Jessica's instructor, was responsible for the flight.

Criticism persists

Criticism of Dubroff and Hathaway for letting their daughter undertake such a risky venture persisted, and Dubroff's son, David, a Concord resident, said the criticism has angered the family. "He never pushed any of us to do anything," he said. "Since there's been a tragic accident, everyone's trying to turn him into a villain. . . . This was a dream. This was a great father-daughter adventure that ended in tragedy. There's no one to blame," David Dubroff said.

A funeral service for Dubroff will be held Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Temple United Methodist Church in San Francisco.

The Half Moon Bay Flying Club, of which Jessica was a member, will hold a flyover at the airport during an 11 a.m. memorial service on Saturday.

A vigil for Reid is scheduled at 7 p.m. Sunday at Our Lady of the Pillar Church in Half Moon Bay. A funeral Mass will be celebrated Monday at 10 a.m. Burial will be at Our Lady of the Pillar Cemetery.

Jessica will be buried in her hometown Monday, her mother said, but other details were still being worked out late Saturday by the Miller-Dutra Funeral Home, which is also in charge of the services for Reid.

THE TRAGIC FLIGHT OF JESSICA DUBROFF

Remains of father,

flight instructor also brought ba<