Former Buff Skier Sax Killed in Plane Crash

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BOULDER - Former University of Colorado national champion skier Bryan Sax was killed Saturday (Dec. 6) in a mid-air collision between two small planes over the Florida Everglades. He was 37.

Sax was the giant slalom champion at the 1995 NCAA Championships, helping Colorado to a team victory in the event in Attitash, N.H. A four-year letterman, he was the recipient of the team's Buddy Werner Award as a senior. He is the last CU men's skier to win the giant slalom in the national championships.

"Bryan was always fun to be around. He was a dream student-athlete for any team sport and a person who never lost the grin on his face," CU ski coach Richard Rokos said. Rokos coached Sax all four years on the varsity team after he was promoted from the developmental squad. "Bryan's family hosted the whole team any time we competed in Aspen and his parents were big supporters of the team."

"After graduation, Bryan worked as a manager of our dryland summer camps," Rokos added. "Working with juniors was Bryan's way to share his passion for sport. We were good friends and shared multiple hobbies and he will be greatly missed by all of us who loved him."

Sax, a pilot and business partner in Aspen Aero, a flight school based at the town's Sardy Field, died on Saturday in a mid-air collision over the Florida Everglades, just west of Broward County, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. Four people died in the crash, two on each plane, with the bodies recovered Monday after airboats were utilized to reach the hard-to-access crash site. All four bodies were found in the cockpits of the two planes involved.

Sax was in Florida for flight school training in multi-engine aircraft to receive his advanced certification.

The two aircraft, a single-engine Cessna 172 and a twin-engine Piper PA-44 Seminole, were operating under Visual Flight Rules, the sheriff's department said. That means they were not under air traffic control and had responsibility for avoiding other airplanes in the airspace. The last communication received was from Sax, the pilot of the Piper, at about 3:30 p.m. when he took off from Fort Lauderdale International Airport. The Cessna took off from North Perry Airport in Hollywood.

When neither plane had returned late Saturday night, the owners reported them missing early Sunday morning, Bergen said. A statewide alert system out of Tallahassee notified the Broward County Sheriff's Office that the planes were overdue, starting the search. The wreckage was spotted at about 8 a.m. by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft.

"It happened sometime after 4 p.m. and the most likely scenario was a mid-air collision," Bergen said.

Sax was captain of CU's men's alpine team in 1994-95, his senior year. His collegiate skiing career was almost storybook in nature as he started out on CU's development team, a squad comprised of athletes hoping to one day make the varsity, and ending five years later with an NCAA title in the giant slalom, his only career win though he posted seven top 10 finishes, including a runner-up effort in the slalom in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association championships. He graduated from CU with a degree in Economics.

Born February 25, 1971 in Aspen, Sax is survived by his wife, Christy and their daughter, Zaya, 7, and a stepson, Dante Lizotte, 13. He also has a daughter from his first marriage, Hannah, 13; his first wife, Anne Watt, was also a four-year member of the CU ski team. Sax is also survived by his parents, Don and Marcia, and a sister, Rachel, another CU graduate and ski team alum.

A memorial service is planned in Aspen but details are pending.

(Some information for this story was from coverage by the Aspen Times and the Miami Herald.)

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