{"id":471723,"date":"2026-09-22T07:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471723\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T07:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:58:09","slug":"mother-remembers-son-killed-during-instructional-flight-at-montgomery-field-in-san-diego-nbc-7-san-diego-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471723\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother remembers son killed during instructional flight at Montgomery Field in San Diego \u2013 NBC 7 San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flight instructor Fredrick Hewett<\/a>, 37, and his student, Roger Shimizu, 45<\/a>, were killed when their Cessna crashed at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport during an instructional flight.<\/p>\n

The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office identified Hewett as the second victim of the fiery crash. The accident happened Sept. 7 during landing and takeoff drills.<\/p>\n

According to an FAA preliminary report, the plane’s left wing began to dip, the engine stalled and the aircraft spun into the ground. Both Hewett and Shimizu died before first responders could reach them. The cause of their deaths had not been determined.<\/p>\n

Hewett’s mother, Maria Hewett, remembered her son, whom she called Freddy, as a positive person with a passion for learning and connecting with people.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was happy, positive. He never met anyone he didn\u2019t like,” she said.<\/p>\n

Hewett was the middle of three children, with a younger brother, David, and an older sister, Maria Elana.<\/p>\n

\u201cI raised my children to believe that they are children of the world,” Maria said.<\/p>\n

Her son took that message to heart. According to his mother, Hewett knew eight languages and was a voracious reader with a passion for languages and cultures.<\/p>\n

A graduate of Valhalla High School, Hewett went on to UC Irvine and later studied abroad at Hitotsubashi University.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just packed his books. There are hundreds and hundreds of books in Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Arabic, Hebrew, German, French — oh god!” Maria said with her head in her hands.<\/p>\n

Hewett married Sun Cheung, whom he met at a bus stop in China. He was a stepfather to a son and daughter who are now college-age.<\/p>\n

A licensed pilot and flight instructor, Hewett eventually hoped to become a commercial pilot. He divided his time between Arizona and San Diego.<\/p>\n

His mother said she was devastated by his death but thankful for the time they had together.<\/p>\n

\u201cLord, I say, I want to thank you for the 37 years you gave me with Freddy and I hope that you welcome him there,\u201d Maria said.<\/p>\n

Hewett last saw her son the Wednesday before the crash. The two decided to take time off from work and share a picnic lunch on Coronado.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was telling me all the excitement of what was happening,” she said.<\/p>\n

Hewett taught students from other countries not only how to fly, but also language and math. His mother said his gift was his ability to bridge geographic and cultural divides.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what is sustaining me, knowing that he lived to the fullest. I have no regrets,” she said.<\/p>\n

His mother described Hewett as a teacher by nature and a student of life. She said one lesson from her son remains with her:<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing curious about everything and go after and learn about it.”<\/p>\n

Hewett’s family said he will be cremated. They are planning a celebration of life memorial for November or December.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flight instructor Fredrick Hewett, 37, and his student, Roger Shimizu, 45, were killed when their Cessna crashed at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-471723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}