HOUSTON – One of the four victims in Sunday night’s harrowing helicopter crash has been identified as Cesar Lerma.
He was one of three passengers onboard the National Helicopter Solutions helicopter on a night tour over the city.
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Multiple videos obtained by KPRC 2 show the Robinson R44 chopper slamming into the radio tower. No one survived. The helicopter was flying along at 108 miles an hour, 600 feet above ground according to FlightAware data. The crash killed Lerma, two family members, and the pilot. Their identities have not been released.
Sergio Suniga knew Lerma for about ten years. They both worked in the same business mall, two doors away from each other.
“One thing about Cesar, is he was so passionate about what he did,” Suniga told KPRC 2′s Deven Clarke. “He always talked about his family. . . It hurts us that someone who loved his family so much, that this would happen.”
Suniga said even though Lerma left the business mall in SE Houston and moved his work as a carpenter to Pearland, he would come back and visit.
“Whenever you saw the pictures [of his work] you were like, ‘Man Cesar, this is perfect,’ but he always said, ‘Sergio, I always go the extra mile, no matter what, I always go the extra mile.”
Suniga, who does car maintenance, smiled warmly remembering the work he did on Lerma’s Hummer.
“He told me, this is my baby!”
Lerma left the work mall about four years ago and moved to Pearland, Suniga said.
Humble and down to earth is how Suniga remembers his friend. “He was the greatest humble man you could ever meet. I mean, imagine, driving a new Hummer, probably $100,000 and he would get out and hug you. ‘How you doing Sergio? What do you need?’”
Suniga, also a pastor, said “Believe it or not, you gotta live at your fullest. You know a lot of people preach it and say it, but a lot of people don’t live it.”
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