Jay and Katrina Erickson, missionaries to Zambia, die in plane crash
A Washington State couple who are missionaries to Africa were killed in a plane crash in Zambia.
Jay and Katrina Erickson, with their daughters Marina, right, and Coral. The Spokane couple died Saturday in a plane crash in northwest Zambia, where they served as missionaries. Chitokoloki Mission Hospital photo
The Seattle Times reports Jay and Katrina Erickson had been in Zambia since February, working at a hospital on the Zambezi River about 400 miles upstream from Victoria Falls.
The Ericksons were both killed when their aircraft hit an electrical pole and crashed into the Zambezi River in Zambia, according to members of the Hillyard church they attended.
Their daughters, 2-year-old Marina and 1-year-old Coral, had stayed behind at the hospital. Katrina Erickson’s parents, who live in Wisconsin, are preparing to travel to Zambia with Jay Erickson’s mother to reunite with their granddaughters, said Pastor Ron Ulmer of Hillyard Baptist Church on Monday.
The girls will be brought to Spokane, and the church will hold a memorial service for their parents in a few weeks, he said.
“They were living their dream and doing what they thought the Lord wanted them to do,” Ulmer said of the Ericksons.
The Spokesman-Review reported the Ericksons will be buried at the mission.
There is a great tribute written by a friend of the Ericksons here.
