The Movement for a Better America

You may have seen the television news about the private plane that crashed into a Montana cemetery, killing 7 children and 7 adults. The crash occurred within 500 feet of the Butte, Montana airport where it might have landed safely.

What the media failed to mention is that the Catholic Holy Cross Cemetery where the high-performance Pilatus Turboprop crashed contains a memorial for local residents to pray the rosary at the 'Tomb of the Unborn.' The memorial was erected by local Catholic parishioners to honor and remember all babies who have died because of abortion.

What else was the mainstream media not telling you?

The family who died in the crash near the abortion victims memorial is the family of Irving 'Bud' Feldkamp, owner of one of the largest for-profit abortion chains in the nation.

Irving Moore 'Bud' Feldkamp III is the owner of Allcare and Hospitality Dental Associates and CEO of Glen Helen Raceway Park in San Bernardino. He purchased California Family Planning Associates four years ago. The 17 Family Planning clinics perform more abortions in the state than any other abortion provider including Planned Parenthood. They perform abortions through the first five months of pregnancy.

As the owner, Feldkamp reaps huge profits from the tens of thousands of babies who are killed through abortions performed every year at his clinics. His abortion business enabled him to afford the $3 million-dollar Pilatus 12 turboprop that was carrying his family to their week-long vacation at The Yellowstone Club, a millionaires-only ski resort.

The plane went down on Sunday, killing two of Feldkamp's daughters, two sons-in-law and five grandchildren along with the pilot and four family friends. The plane, a single-engine turboprop flown by Bud Summerfield of Highland, crashed into the Catholic cemetery and burst into flames, just 500 ft. away from and parallel to the airport runway. All aboard were killed.

The cause of the crash is a mystery. The pilot, a former military pilot with 2,000 hours of flying time, gave no indication to air traffic controllers that the aircraft was experiencing difficulty when he asked to change his original flight plan from Bozeman to the airport in Butte. Butte was about 20 nautical miles closer than Bozeman, suggesting that the aircraft might have been low on fuel, one reason for diverting. The area is mountainous, making any flight complication more critical.

Witnesses report that the plane suddenly nose-dived toward the ground with no apparent explanation. The plane lacked a cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder, and the Butte airport is not equipped with a radar facility, so technical details about the flight are not immediately available.

I first came to know the Feldkamps during my time working for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. I helped organize a weekly campaign where youth activists stood outside of Feldkamp's mini-mansion in Redlands holding fetal development signs. Our aim was to raise community awareness regarding Feldkamp's dealings in child murder for profit. Every Thursday afternoon we called upon Bud and his wife Pam to repent and to seek God's grace to separate themselves from the practice of child killing.

We warned him, for his children's sake, to wash his hands of the innocent blood he assisted in spilling because, as Scripture says, if "you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you". (Ezekiel 35:6)

A news source stated that Bud Feldkamp visited the site of the crash with his wife and their two surviving children on Monday. As they stood near the twisted and charred debris talking with investigators, light snow fell on the tarps that covered the remains of their children, grandchildren, and friends.

I sincerely hope and pray that through this tragedy he comes to recognize his need for repentance and reformation. I invite all to pray that God will use this catastrophe to soften the hearts of Bud and Pam that they may draw close to the Lord and seek to wash their hands of the blood of thousands of innocent children, each as precious and irreplaceable as their own.

"I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then." (Deut. 30:19)

Gingi Edmonds is a young pro-life activist, writer and photographer from Hanford, California. She is available for pro-life speaking engagements and presentations. She brings to her work a dedication to educating and motivating high school and college age people using a fresh approach based on hard facts presented with wit and empathy. A photojournalist, she also shoots video documentaries of pro-life events.
Contact her through her website: www.gingiedmonds.com or through the Movement for a Better America.

Additional comment for aviation buffs

The Pilatus 12 is a $3 million Swiss-made, single-engine turboprop that normally cruises at around 250 knots and burns 447 lbs of fuel per hour. With a pilot and 3 passengers, it has a range of 1500 nm, but when fully loaded, as this flight certainly was, that range is seriously compromised.

In a commuter airline configuration, the Pilatus can carry eight people plus a crew of two. In a corporate layout, the normal passenger seating arrangement is just six. Yet this flight had a total of 7 adults plus 7 children, so it was overcrowded if not overloaded. Most of the children had to be sharing seats with adults, or were sitting on the floor – a highly unsafe arrangement.

Total passenger weight was estimated to be in the area of 1200 pounds for the adults and 500 pounds or more for the children. However, it could have been even heavier depending on the size and weight of the adults. This flight should not have taken off without a careful weight and balance check.

Add baggage, skis and other possible equipment, and the total passenger load had to be 2,000 pounds or more. That would have limited the available load for fuel to about 1400 pounds - barely enough for a 2-hour flight with normal reserve.

Flight time from Oroville, CA, to Butte was estimated to be about 2:15 – barring unusual winds aloft. A strong northwest wind as a direct crosswind component to the flight path could have slowed the flight’s groundspeed by as much as10% -- compromising its ability to get there with fuel to spare.

"Get-there-it is" is a common cause for aircraft accidents of this type, and they frequently occur to wealthy people and professionals who can afford high performance aircraft that exceed their judgment and experience to operate safely.

In our society, people are often prone to sacrificing long-term goals like safety and salvation for short-term benefits and pleasures. It is no surprise that someone who who may have lived by that rule should have to pay the high price so often attached to it.

Our prayers go with the Feldkamps for repentance, reconciliation and forgiveness.

Dennis Howard

The Movement for a Better America, a pro-life educational organization headquartered here, has joined Judie Brown, President of the American Life League, in appealing to America’s Catholic bishops to denounce “pro-abortion Catholic politicians who attempt to use their faith to political advantage.”

MBA President Dennis Howard agreed with Brown that “it is unconscionable for Rep. Nancy Pelosi to claim that the Catholic faith is an important part of her life while she denies the teachings of the Church by supporting the killing of children through abortion.”

He agreed that Pelosi is “using the Catholic faith to soften her continued support of abortion on demand. It would be quite different if she were repentant, but she hasn't given the slightest indication of any change in her pro-abortion position," he said.

Howard quoted the late John Cardinal O’Connor, who told him: “A great many bishops are no longer amused by politicians who don’t practice their Catholicism in their political life.” He recalled that O’Connor was hailed at his funeral for “his great legacy – the reminder that the Church must always be unambiguously pro-life.”

Howard applauded Bishop John D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend for refusing to attend the upcoming Notre Dame University commencement address by President Barack Obama, where the president will be given an honorary degree. Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins has refused to rescind the Obama invitation, and a strong Catholic protest continues to build.

Graduating Notre Dame seniors have complained that "Fr. Jenkins has put many of his students into a moral dilemma as to whether they can attend their own graduation. Many pro-life seniors, along with their families now feel personally conflicted about participating in the commencement."

Howard said, “I think it’s time bishops reaffirm that they are, indeed, no longer amused by pro-abortion politicians who would like to have it both ways -- to parade their Catholicism for political advantage and then turn around and betray Catholic principles at the expense of the unborn.”

Pelosi recently visited the Vatican, where Pope Benedict XVI reminded her that her views were inconsistent with Catholic Church teachings, and that she should cease claiming otherwise. She has since given no public indication that her views have changed.

Howard, whose organization has been tracking abortion data since 1992, pointed out that the abortion toll recently passed 51.2 million babies who have been aborted since 1970.

He added: “Politicians like Pelosi show no hesitation in deploring the death of more than 4,000 of our heroes in Iraq over the last five years, yet they don’t shed a tear for the totally needless death of 3,700 unborn children every single day here at home. It doesn't matter what party she belongs to. Such inconsistency deserves condemnation.”