The pilot of the plane which crashed killing almost every member of a Brazilian first division football team lost his own father in a plane crash when he was still a baby, it emerged on Wednesday.
And in a tragic twist of fate, Miguel Quiroga, who was flying the doomed LaMia plane taking Chapecoense players to play in Colombia, himself became a father for the third time just weeks ago.
While the cause of the crash is not yet known, the 36-year-old pilot has been hailed a hero after it emerged he may have dumped fuel in the moments before the plane came down to stop it turning into a fireball on impact.
The crash on the outskirts of Medellin in Colombia left 76 dead - but miraculously six survived, including three players.
Friends and family of Miguel - known as Micky - today paid tribute to the experienced aviator, a devoted father-of-three and husband who they claimed instinctively helped others.
And they claimed that, rather than putting him off becoming a pilot, growing up without his father Eduardo made him more determined to follow the same career path - one in which he has now suffered the same fate.
Milena Quiroga, a cousin of the pilot, told how Bolivian-born Micky had recently applied for Brazilian nationality after setting up home in Brazil with his wife and three children, who are all Brazilian.
And she remembered how, despite having to grow up without him, he studied obsessively to be a pilot like his late father, to the detriment of his social life.
She said: "His father suffered an accident when Miguel was still a baby, but he always wanted to following this career.
"He went in to the air force so he could become a pilot, and become a commercial pilot, so he could have better quality of life.
"I kept in touch with him through social networks because he never stopped, he worked a lot.
"My cousin loved aviation. He was a person who was happy and professionally fulfilled."
She said that among Micky's friends and colleagues he was known as a person who valued family life. The couple, who already had a son and a daughter, recently had another child.
She said: "If he spent three months away from home travelling he would come home and stay in his house with his children, take them out, they were his treasure."
Meanwhile in the remote Brazilian town where Micky and his wife Daniela Pinto were building their lives, the Bolivian pilot was held in high esteem because of his efforts to make life better for those around him.
Married to the daughter of an ex-Brazilian senator, Roger Pinto, the couple, who had three children, had been constructing a home in Epitaciolandia, on the border with Bolivia in the northern Brazilian state of Acre.
According to reports, the couple often used their status and connections to push for investment in the town, while the pilot had used his own money to fund improvements.
Micky's cousin Kris Quiroga, an architect, summed up the good feeling towards him in post on a local news website: "Today I woke up with the worst news of my life. Today I lost my cousin.. my brother.. and my prince of my 15th birthday party.. my super hero!
"A good person, with a beautiful family, full of stories, marvellous experiences and I was his fan!
"Today you went to be with your father (Uncle Eduardo) and your brother, who must be very proud of you and who are welcoming you with open arms.
"Here we will miss you and will keep the memories of all the moments that we spent together, and the certainty that you did everything possible to save everyone who was on that plane."
Born in the northern Bolivian city of Cobija, Micky went to military college and graduated as a pilot in the Bolivian Air Force (FAB), where he gained experience flying over the Bolivian Amazon.
He rose to the rank of "official aviator" before starting a career in commercial flights.
According to reports, he was a co-owner of the LaMia Corporation, and had commanded aircraft on flights to Europe and other parts of the world.
Mario Pchecho, press officer for LaMia, told Bolivian El Deber newspaper that the company has three planes, two of which are currently undergoing maintenance work. He said that while the planes are owned by Venezuelans, the company itself is owned by Micky and his partner, Marco Antonio Rocha.
Micky regularly piloted flights chartered by football teams on his planes, had flown the Bolivian and Argentinian national sides and had already transported Chapecoense on other trips, many of whose players already considered him a close friend.
On his Facebook page, Micky had posted pictures with the Chapecoense team, including one of them eating together in a restaurant and another of a football signed by footballers, taken at Medellin airport.
And last month he posted a plane headrest cover signed by Lionel Messi when the company had transported the Argentina side to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to play a World Cup group game.