Helicopter crash near Phoenix killed owner of large AZ firm; 4 others aboard and believed dead

Copter crash in Arizona killed company owner

PHOENIX — Five people were aboard a helicopter that crashed just north of Phoenix over the weekend, including the owner and founder of a national firm that is Arizona’s second-largest privately held company, Services Group of America.

The company said in a statement Monday that 64-year-old Thomas J. Stewart was killed.

The company’s statement did not identify the other four aboard, but said they were believed to have been killed in the fiery crash on Sunday.

Arizona state Sen. Jonathan Paton eulogized Thomas, his wife and one of his six children on the Senate floor on Monday.

The statement from the Scottsdale-based food service distributing and real estate firm says the company-owned Eurocopter EC135 was headed to Scottsdale from the Flagstaff area when it crashed in a rural desert wash.

Stewart moved his company to Arizona from Seattle in 2006.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

PHOENIX (AP) — The owner and founder of Services Group of America — Arizona’s second-largest privately held company — was among the victims killed in a helicopter crash just north of Phoenix, a state senator said Monday.

Sen. Jonathan Paton eulogized Thomas J. Stewart on the Senate floor on Monday, saying Stewart died in the crash along with his wife and one of his six children.

Officials with the Scottsdale-based food service distributing and real estate firm planned an announcement later Monday, but hadn’t confirmed Stewart’s death.

The Eurocopter EC135 went down in a rural area just north of Phoenix on Sunday. A Maricopa County sheriff’s spokeswoman said mechanical failure is suspected because witnesses saw parts flying off the stricken aircraft right before it crashed.

Stewart, in his mid-60s, joined his father’s Seattle-based port support business in the late 1960s and expanded it into insurance and food distribution, fruit packing and retailing.

After spinning off some subsidiaries, he moved the company to Arizona in 2006. He had a home in the Phoenix area and a ranch in northern Arizona.

Services Group of America’s Web site says its customers include independent and chain restaurants, schools, hospitals, hotels, cruise lines and government foodservice operations. It has 4,000 employees and is ranked 157th among the nation’s largest private companies, according to Forbes Magazine.

“I got a chance to know Tom and work with him and it is devastating for the community and for his family,” Paton said. “My heart goes out to their employees and the rest of the business community that’s grieving right now for this family.”

According to a biography of Stewart on his company’s Web site, he began working for his father’s business, Seattle Stevedore Company, in 1967, after graduating from college. He was named vice president in 1970, his father gave him half the business in 1976 and he became CEO in 1981 at age 36. He expanding the business through a series of purchases, buying up port operators on the West Coast, produce and foodstuffs companies.

After splitting the company in 1989 to dismantle the partnership, Stewart ended up with Services Group of America and shed its stevedoring subsidiaries.

His biography said Stewart was an avid golfer, horseman, rancher, fisherman, skier, pilot, scuba diver and team roper.