FULLERTON PLANE CRASH : Friends, Relatives Recall 3 Whose Lives Were Lost in Tragedy : Profiles: Sharan Ernst is remembered as a devoted grandmother, Michael Benson as a seasoned pilot and Les Arehart, an Anaheim employee, as a dedicated public servant.

Sharan Ernst spent Sunday evening enjoying one of her favorite activities--sitting in front of the television, talking with her children and playing with her grandchildren.

“She was very involved with the kids,” said family member Debbie Oresko. “She was a warm and giving person. She was always in a good mood.”

At 6:30 a.m. Monday, that tranquillity was shattered when Ernst--a 43-year-old former nurse who liked to crochet baby clothes and had recently stayed home to care for her two young grandchildren--was killed by a falling airplane as she lay sleeping in her bed.

“The family is devastated,” Oresko said. “They’ve lost everything.”

Also killed Monday were pilot Michael Benson, 40, of Big Bear and passenger Les Arehart, 46, who also lived in Big Bear and commuted to work at Anaheim’s Finance Department.

Just moments before the crash, Ernst’s husband, Ron, had gotten up to smoke a cigarette downstairs before getting ready for his job as manager of an auto supply shop. Of the three grown children who live with the couple, one daughter had already left the house to stop at a spa en route to cosmetology classes at Fullerton College, another daughter was in the shower and the couple’s son rested in his downstairs bedroom.

Also still sleeping in their downstairs bedroom were the couple’s two young grandchildren, a 2 1/2-year-old boy and a 4 1/2-month-old girl. The children were staying at the home with their mother while their father serves with the military in Korea.

After whisking the two youngsters out of the house to safety, Ron Ernst and his son tried to rush upstairs to save Sharan Ernst but found the area “too involved with the flames,” Oresko said.

“He tried to get to her,” she said of the dead woman’s husband. “He is devastated that he couldn’t get to her.”

On Monday afternoon, the stunned family huddled at Oresko’s Orange County home trying to make sense of the tragedy as members of a local church began collecting money to buy them emergency food and clothing. “We hope to get all that for them so they’ll have it in time for Thanksgiving,” said Greg Davis, senior assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel of Brea.

Ron Ernst spent most of Monday at the crash site waiting for investigators to remove his wife’s body.

Later in the day at Anaheim City Hall, friends remembered Les Arehart, a passenger in the doomed plane. They described him as an achiever who overcame all obstacles, even after he was left a paraplegic in a traffic accident two years after graduating from Bishop Amat High School in La Puente.

Lifelong friend Bob Estanislau called Arehart “courageous.” Arehart was an all-CIF linebacker in high school and went on to play football at Pasadena City College before he was paralyzed in 1971, said Estanislau, who lives in Laguna Niguel.

Arehart never saw his disability as a handicap. He went on to earn a pilot’s license, becoming a weekend charter pilot and flight instructor at Aero Haven in Big Bear with more than 1,500 hours flying time, said Jan Ehrenberg, Aero Haven’s general manager.

“There was nothing he couldn’t do. He flew planes. He drove boats, and he parachuted,” Estanislau said. “He tried everything. He acted like there was nothing he couldn’t do. He’s a hero.”

Arehart lived in Big Bear, and worked as a management analyst in the Anaheim Finance Department since September, 1993. In a written statement, City Manager James D. Ruth remembered Arehart as a “dedicated public servant who exemplified the highest integrity.”

Finance Director William G. Sweeney, who was Arehart’s boss, called him an “inspiration” and said, “We are all doing our best to come to terms with this devastating event.”

Arehart is survived by a brother who lives in Big Bear.

Benson, 40, commuted daily by plane from Big Bear to his business in Gardena, according to Ehrenberg. On Mondays, Benson would usually drop off Arehart at Fullerton Airport before continuing to Hawthorne Airport, Ehrenberg said. The two men had followed this routine “for several months,” she said.

“Benson learned to fly here and owned his plane. He had about 300 hours of flight time,” she said.

John Emig, editor of the Big Bear weekly, The Grizzly, said Benson earned his pilot’s license about 18 months ago.

Friends of Benson said he and his wife, Sandy, have three sons, ages 4, 12 and 14.