(CNN) -- About a year after losing his dad in a plane crash, Matt Snoddy climbed into the cockpit for an emotional flight. 

His kids Charlie, age 5 and Alice, 3, were tucked in the back of the tiny Cessna and his flight instructor was seated alongside. Snoddy pulled back on the stick and they were airborne. 

The Lexington, Kentucky, landscape spread out below them as the plane gained altitude. Snoddy couldn't help but gaze down at Blue Grass Airport, where Comair Flight 191 crashed during takeoff, killing his father, Tim Snoddy, and 48 others. 

A government investigation blamed the crash on Flight 191's pilots, who attempted takeoff from a wrong runway. The FAA administrator at the time said disasters like Flight 191 might be avoided under NextGen, the nation's sweeping air traffic overhaul set to roll out by 2025. 

Memories of the crash had kept Snoddy -- a longtime private pilot -- out of the cockpit until his wife offered the flight as a gift for Father's Day. "She wanted me to take the kids up and to see if I wanted to keep flying." 

Snoddy and his father shared a love for flying -- Matt Snoddy as a pilot and his dad as a passenger. Tim Snoddy enjoyed flying so much he'd been talking about getting his pilots' license, too. 

Tim Snoddy, a 51-year-old accountant and consultant for legal cases, was a frequent business traveler who left his Lexington home many times a year to spend a total of six months away at his offices in Asheville, North Carolina, and near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 
What was he about to do?
 Matt Snoddy climbed into the cockpit for an emotional flight. 
