Keith McHeffey

An Anchor in a Crisis
Keith D. McHeffey was flying home from France two years ago when one of the jet's engines failed and the pilot was forced to drop fuel, turn around and head back toward Ireland. In the panic, distraught flight attendants plucked Keith from his seat, gave him a crash course in emergency landings and assigned him the unenviable job of operating the emergency door and slide.

Keith, 31, inspired confidence. Friends called him for help in the middle of the night and he would come; if a house got flooded, he would be there at midnight helping. "These kind of things sort of happened to him," his mother, Sherry McHeffey, said of the incident on the plane, which landed safely at Shannon Airport. "We were assuming this was one of the worst things that would ever happen to Keith."

The son of a broker, Keith had become a trader. He lived in Monmouth Beach, N.J., played in a softball league, skiied and snowboarded, played basketball and rode a mountain bike in Atlantic Highlands, near his home. Two months ago, he took a job at Cantor Fitzgerald. He was planning to work in the firm's new offices in Shrewsbury, N.J., which, his mother said, had been expected to open early this month but turned out not to be ready.