Family, Friends Gather to Salute Crash Victim : Eulogy: Phillip Fleming Jr. was a passenger on USAir jet in L.A. Airport collision. He was remembered as a man who worked hard and helped others.

By JESSE KATZ

Feb. 8, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The charred wreckage was long ago scraped off the runway and the gruesome images have already faded from TV, but for those who knew Phillip Fleming Jr. the painful reality of last week’s deadly collision at Los Angeles International Airport is only just beginning to sink in.

In one of the first memorial services for the 34 people who died in the fiery incident Friday, about 200 family members and friends of Fleming filled the wooden pews of First African Methodist Episcopal Church on Thursday to pay tribute to the hard-working accountant and business teacher, who leaves his wife of 20 years and a teen-age son.

Fleming, 44, the only victim from Los Angeles aboard the USAir jetliner, was returning home from a business trip to Ohio when the aircraft slammed into a SkyWest Airlines commuter plane and burst into flames on Runway 24-Left.

In subsequent days, several survivors have knocked on the door of Fleming’s Baldwin Hills house to tell his family that he heroically stayed inside the jetliner helping others escape, even as flames began to engulf the aircraft.

“That just epitomized Phil,” said his close friend, Roland McFarland, manager of broadcast standards for ABC-TV. “He was always there for you. He was there to the end.”

In the emotional ceremony, which occurred the same day that USAir released a list of all those who died on the jet, Fleming was eulogized as a quiet achiever, devoted family man and talented CPA, who used his business skills to promote economic opportunity in the African-American community.

“This is a man who’s not a superstar . . . not an individual who ever gets any press or publicity,” said another good friend, Craig Cummings, a Los Angeles attorney. “He was just an average guy out there who was taking care of his family, working hard . . . and touching a lot of people.”

Under a vivid mural depicting black achievement, a soloist filled the church in the West Adams area with “Amazing Grace,” another sang “The Lord’s Prayer,” and dozens of men and woman in the congregation struggled with their tears.

At the front of the church, next to a lavish floral arrangement, four easels balanced collages of photographs from Fleming’s life--from his days as a UCLA business student, to his marriage to Johnetta Dockins Fleming, to the confirmation of their 17-year-old son, Omari.

Then there were testimonials from his boss at the Department of Defense facility in El Segundo where he worked as an auditor for the last six years, from the principal at Crenshaw Dorsey Community Adult School where he taught business at night since 1974, and from a representative of Mayor Tom Bradley’s office, who praised his work on behalf of small, black-owned businesses.

“We come to rejoice for a life well-lived,” said state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), whose district includes the airport. “I just think Phil was in God’s plan.”

The Rev. Cecil (Chip) Murray, pastor of First A.M.E., said, “Phil Fleming was and is a care package--one of those rare human beings who carries love upon his back . . . He lived giving; he died giving.”

Fleming, the oldest of nine children, flew to Los Angeles 22 years ago from the small Mississippi town of Natchez. On Saturday, his remains will be flown back there for burial.

AIR CRASH VICTIMS Following are those identified so far as victims in the crash of a USAir 737 and a SkyWest commuter plane at Los Angeles International Airport:

USAir

Pilot:

Colin Shaw, 48, Huntingtown, Md.

Flight attendant:

Deanna Bethea, 22, Annandale, Va.

Passengers:

Robert Cole, 27, Washington

Jennifer Dow, 18, Millbury, Mass.

Robert Dow, 46, Millbury, Mass.

Phillip Fleming, 44, Los Angeles

Lisa Mandalfino, 28, Columbus, Ohio. Martha O’Neill, 46, Sutton, Mass.

Jimmy Perdue, 19, U.S. Navy, parents in Huntsville, Ohio