Business leader dies in Marana plane crash

MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — While investigators look into the plane crash that killed Chris Sheafe and his wife Jacque, friends are looking at Sheafe’s life and how his work brought life to the region.

Friends say Chris Sheafe loved to fly, so when he and his wife Jacque wanted to go to Indianapolis to watch U of A play in the Final Four, instead of booking seats on a big airliner, they took off in their small plane. Wednesday, they made it back to their home base in Marana where they ran off the runway and crashed.

For Rio Nuevo Chair Fletcher McCusker, the crash that killed Chris Sheafe and his wife Jacque took more than the life of a friend, it took someone who through his work as treasurer for Rio Nuevo, helped build modern downtown Tucson, alive with restaurants, entertainment and hotels.

“He’s probably the most experienced developer in southern Arizona. He built Ventana Canyon. He ran Estes homes. He’s done huge and small projects. He understood the developers mentality. He understood the banks.”

McCusker says he’s an experienced pilot and he and Chris Scheafe understood the joys of flying, and the dangers.

He says Scheafe would have paced himself and taken plenty of breaks on the long trip home from Indianapolis.

“He loved to fly. He loved to travel, you know, so if he went someplace, it was never direct. It was, you know, two or three stopovers, couple nights here, weekend, here, lunch, over there. He never pressed. And, you know, he he was coming home. There wasn’t anything he had to do except land.”

McCusker says Sheafe’s likable personality and depth of experience will be hard to replace on the Rio Nuevo board but their work to improve downtown will continue and benefit from what they’ve learned from Chris Sheafe.