Posted on 07/07/2002 4:53:31 AM PDT by kcvl
Jul. 7, 2002 Ticket agent's wedding plans doomed by airport attacker By TOM TUGEND
LOS ANGELES Friday was to have been one of Victoria Hen's happiest days. Her family had planned a surprise party at which Victoria's fiance would formally propose marriage to the 25-year-old Israeli-American woman.
Instead, her parents, Avinoam and Rachel Hen, and her brothers Nimrod and Udi, spent the day planning her funeral service, set for 2 p.m. today at Eden Memorial Park in suburban Mission Hills.
Hen, who had worked as an El Al ticket agent for only six weeks, was one of the victims slain when an Egyptian-born gunman opened fire Thursday noon in a line of passengers waiting to board Flight #106 from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv.
Contrary to earlier reports, the gunman, Hesham Muhammad Hadayet, did not face and argue with Hen before the shooting, but opened fire while still standing in the passenger line, some 20 feet away from the check-in counter, according to the FBI. Two bullets hit Hen in the chest.
At the Hen family home in suburban Chatsworth, Victoria's uncle, Yaron Ochana, remembered the attractive young woman as "a princess who only wanted to do good." Family spokesman Joseph Knoller said that the family had moved in 1990 from Tel Aviv to the Los Angeles area, where the father established an automotive parts business, and that Victoria graduated from Birmingham High School in 1995.
She eventually hoped to attend college, but worked in the meantime as an office manager and in public relations, before taken the position with El Al. There, "her main job was to actually smile at people, to actually make them feel comfortable when they come up the line, and she definitely did that," said Knoller.
The spokesman also conveyed the family's anger at the perceived reluctance of the White House and US law enforcement agencies to describe the double murder as an act of terrorism.
Reading from a prepared statement, Knoller said that the victim "was taken away from us with an act of hate. Vicky was the center of this family, a true angel, and anyone who came in contact with her was touched by an angel.
"The grieving family and relatives oppose the government's initial statement that this was not an act of terror. This was a murder.
We believe that this was an act carried out by a terrorist against Israelis and Americans on American soil. We wish the American government will once and for all take a clear stand on this issue of terror and will act on it."
Jacob "Ya'acov" Aminov, the second victim, was a man known in the community as "exceptionally giving and generous, one who would always help a friend or a stranger," noted Rabbi Aron B. Tendler, a family friend.
So it was in line with his character that Aminov offered to drive a friend to the airport on July 4, despite warnings of possible terrorist attacks on America's Independence Day.
His family was also worried and his son begged Aminov, "Don't go. It's dangerous," reported Aminov's brother-in-law, Mark Ezerzer.
While standing with his friend in the El Al check-in line, Aminov was hit in the chest by the gunman's bullets and, despite frantic efforts to save him, died one hour later. His wife, Anat, who is pregnant, fainted on hearing the doctor's final verdict.
Aminov, 46, moved 14 years ago from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles, where he became a diamond importer and owned a jewelry distribution company in the city's downtown center.
He was deeply devoted to his family, which included his wife, who runs a hat shop, and five children, ranging in age from two to nine years.
There are three additional children, living in Israel, from Aminov's first marriage.
His body was to be flown today aboard El Al to Israel for burial, preceded by a eulogy service at Congregation Yad Avraham in North Hollywood, one of a number of Orthodox synagogues where the devout Aminov prayed daily.
Dozens of friends in the Sephardic community, who arrived at the Aminov home as news of the shooting spread, remembered him as an honest, spiritual, and soft-spoken person.
"He would not speak one word unnecessarily," a friend told the Los Angeles Times.
Others fondly remembered the regular open houses at the Aminov home on Saturday nights, where there was always plenty of food and the vodka flowed freely.
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