Denver, CO - Two children of Denver cardiologist Dr Frederick A Masoudi (University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center) and Dr Marie Johnson-Masoudi (Kaiser Permanente, Denver, CO) were among five fatalities Monday when a small airplane crashed into a vacation cottage in the tiny Oregon coastal town of Gearhart, according to news stories on the incident [1].

Grace Masoudi, age 8, and Hesam Farrar Masoudi, 12, of Denver, and their cousin Julia Reimann, 10, were killed when the plane, believed to be a four-seat Cessna, crashed into the house and exploded soon after taking off from a nearby airfield, the Rocky Mountain News reported on Monday, August 4, 2008, in a story partly based on wire-service reports. Both of the plane's occupants, the pilot and a passenger, also died.

Masoudi is a longtime member of the ACC/AHA Performance Measures Task Force and heads the echocardiography laboratory at Denver Health Medical Center. According to the Rocky Mountain News, the couple was away from the vacation home on a walk with another daughter, Elizabeth, age 14, when the tragedy occurred.

Donations in honor of the Masoudi children made be sent to the Sam and Grace Masoudi Memorial Fund, St Anne's Episcopal School, 2701 S York St, Denver, CO 80210.