Villa Park Man Phoned Mom Before Fated Flight

Villa Park resident William O’Gara called his mother a few minutes before his flight to Geneva to say “I love you” and ask for her prayers.

That was just like him, family members said Saturday.

O’Gara, a 35-year-old real estate agent, was among the 229 people killed Wednesday on Swissair Flight 111. The MD-11 jet, which took off from New York and was bound for Geneva, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, leaving no survivors. On Saturday, investigators continued to look into the cause of the crash.

O’Gara is the third reported Orange County victim on the flight, which also killed a San Juan Capistrano couple, Tom and Julie Sperber.

O’Gara’s mother, Piedad O’Gara, in the next few days will head to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where families are trying to identify the bodies.

“I can’t picture in my mind that he’s not here,” Piedad O’Gara told KNBC-TV Channel 4. “So, what I did is I grabbed this picture, and I hold it, and I’m still holding it.”

She said her son had been supporting her since his father was hospitalized for a brain injury. In the phone call before the flight, O’Gara let his mother know he was thinking of her.

“He said, ‘Mom, I have faith that I will see you on the 17th. I love you, and tell everyone I love them.’ And those were his last words,” she told KNBC.

In San Juan Capistrano, friends and family members of other Swissair victims mourned their loss.

Tom Sperber, 39, a salesman, and Julie Sperber, 33, a saleswoman, were headed for a delayed Mediterranean honeymoon after their marriage in the spring of 1997.

The couple would have normally flown out of Los Angeles to Europe. But they opted to visit relatives in New Jersey first--a decision that placed them on the fateful flight out of New York.

Family members said they will be buried together.