The couple remain shaken over the collision and loss of a young pilot from nearby.

Hibberd's father, brother, sister and brother-in-law all have flown. A University of Texas honors graduate, his destiny was clear.

"Pilot's kids become pilots," said father Larry Hibberd, a former Navy pilot who flew for Southwest Airlines for 26 years. "He was so focused on being a pilot."

Cargo was the way Nicholas paid his dues, just as his brother, Jeff, had, and he flew for Denton's Tex Star Air Freight when he died.

Nicholas once surprised his father at Christmas with a painted replica of the F-4 Phantom he flew in the Navy. The picture hangs in the family's house today, some five miles from the crash site and covering 28 acres of roaming hill country, with racehorses outside and mementos honoring Nicholas and the aviation industry inside.

His mother Darlene's wish? ''I would like them to upgrade the equipment," she said.

The NTSB blamed "the failure of the attitude indicator." His case is not unique: In three of every 10 fatal cargo crashes, records show, mechanical failings or company operating lapses were a factor.

A year before Hibberd's crash, another company plane slammed into the ground on final approach to Del Rio International Airport, killing the pilot, 28. Maintenance failure caused the 1978 Cessna to fall.

FAA inspections later found serious lapses at Tex Star Air Freight, which frequently ferried film, documenting several unairworthy aircraft and finding that the company's maintenance director "did not demonstrate the competency and knowledge'' to hold the post. In 2005, facing more civil fines after its second fatal crash, the company surrendered its operating certificate.

Reached in Texas, Tex Star Air Freight President Mark Huff said his company did everything it could "without a doubt'' to keep its planes safe.

"It's very unfortunate it happened to my company within an 18-month time frame, but you are playing with fire every day to a certain degree," Huff said. "The only way to avoid it in this industry is to not be in it."

Herald staff writer Jason Grotto contributed to this report.