By Thomas A. Pamalee
When Patrick Kane, a former administrator at a private Catholic school, first crossed paths with Andrew Czachor – a student – there is no way he could have known that they’d one day be business partners.
But about 10 years later, that’s where they stand as the duo behind Cremation Air, which provides funeral homes with reliable, cost-effective scattering of cremated remains over U.S. coastal waters and is an offshoot of ASD – Answering Service for Directors.
“It was through my job that I got to know the Czachor family,” Kane said, who spent more than 12 years at Devon Preparatory School in Devon, Pennsylvania, mainly as its director of external operations.
Andrew was in the eighth grade when the two met, which is how Kane got to know Marty Czachor, who is Andrew’s father and “a huge supporter of what we were doing at the school,” according to Kane.
The two men struck up a friendship that went beyond work.
When Kane left the school in 2024 to seek a new challenge, Marty proposed they chat about a venture he’d been thinking about for some time – one that would leverage Andrew’s talents as a certified commercial pilot to offer funeral homes nationwide with an aerial scattering option for cremated remains.
What may have struck some as an overly ambitious pivot grabbed Kane’s attention when he first heard about it over a meal.
“I remember my wife looking at me … and I told him, ‘I’m absolutely interested – let’s talk,’” he said.
That led to a series of conversations where Kane met with Andrew and other members of the Czachor family, including Marty’s siblings, Kevin Czachor and Kathy Kelley, fellow family member owners of ASD.
“They felt the timing was right to offer something like this,” Kane said, explaining that from the very beginning, the owners of ASD knew that they only wanted to offer the service through funeral homes – not directly to the public.
They also knew that other than having Andrew fly the plane to scatter the remains and his involvement in the venture, the larger family wanted to be rather hands off.
“They said to me: ‘We don’t have the time to dive into this — we must run ASD. We love you, we trust you and think you are the right person to spend the time researching this and working it out,’” Kane said.
So, Kane went ahead and did what he does best: He got to work.
National Rollout
Cremation Air officially launched in October 2025 with the introduction of its website and its arrival on the floor of the National Funeral Directors Association’s annual convention and expo in Chicago.
Andrew is grateful to be a critical player in the venture.
“Before Cremation Air came about, I was hesitant and truly unsure what and where I was going to do and be,” he said.
He recognized that the family business had “blessed our family and my ability to explore my passions,” but he could not foresee himself spending his career in funeral service.
But flying is a different story.
“With flying, you are constantly learning and being challenged, as every flight is ultimately life-or-death. To me, it’s simply meditation, lifting away from the runway, where you escape above the clouds and leave everything behind,” he explained.
Like Stephen King at a typewriter, Larry Bird on the basketball court or Thomas Edison in his laboratory, an airplane is a special – almost sacred place – for Andrew, where he’s at his best. Combining funeral service with an aerial scattering option made him rethink his destiny.
“We see an untapped opportunity to extend ASD’s innovation and professionalism exclusively to funeral directors,” Andrew said. “As the current sole pilot of this operation, I want Cremation Air to succeed, so I can continue my love of flying and put my passion into providing a unique, dignified memorial service for families who choose us. Knowing that families trust us to provide a service, remembering their loved ones and playing a part in that service is the greatest honor.”
Getting to work with Kane has been a huge bonus, he said.
“Looking back, with Pat being an administrator and my baseball coach in high school, I never would have thought I would be working alongside him,” he said. “We both have a lot of history together as it is, and we plan to continue writing history, redefining what funeral directors can offer to families who seek cremation.”
Regardless of how the company fares, its booth at its first NFDA convention will no doubt be a topic of conversation for years to come, as it featured a distinctive microjet with a Cremation Air vehicle wrap.
How the jet came to be in Chicago could almost be an article on its own.
Both Marty and Kevin Czachor are James Bond fans, and they’ve always loved the jet featured at the beginning of Octopussy: the Bede BD-5J microjet (also known as the Acrostar jet), designed by Bede Aircraft.
The jet is one of the smallest aircraft to ever fly, and the family purchased one from the late 1970s, having its engine removed and shipped across the country where it ultimately added a Cremation Air vehicle wrap, so it could be a fixture at trade shows.
Even if convention-goers didn’t know they were looking at one of the most iconic jets to ever appear in the movies when they walked by the Cremation Air booth, they knew they were looking at something special: Surviving BD-5Js are extremely rare and mostly found in museums or private collections.
“We hired a gentleman that is an expert on the BD-5 Jet to renovate it,” Kane said. “It took him over 160 hours of time, which included the following: decommissioning the jet from flight – engine removal, draining radiator and fuel lines, cutting all electrical, and instrumentation lines, removing broken or heavily damaged external parts, finding replacement parts, cleaning and buffing, paint, fixing and replacing fasteners, etc.” He added, “The creative wrap for the plane ran us under $9,000.”
The idea came from Marty, who recognized that the family had “one shot” to make an incredible first impression.
“My first thought was to get a shell of our Beechcraft Bonanza airplane,” Marty said. “Maybe one that crash landed even. But the size and weight were going to be too much for displaying at a trade show.”
Next, his thoughts turned toward small jets, but he assumed they would be way too expensive. “But I researched and there were two small jets that seemed like they could work: SubSonex and Bede. Further research narrowed my option to the Bede based primarily on price point.”
Of course, it helped that he knew the BD-5J was iconic, having been featured in the famous James Bond movie. “The plane was ‘slightly modified’ for this movie as the wings never folded up, but it was a great visual effect,” Marty said.
But deciding that the BD-5J would meet his needs didn’t make one magically appear: He had to find one!
Fortunately, as rare as the jet is, there were two available.
“One was absolutely beautiful, but it was out of my price range because this BD-5J actually was actively still flying – and still is!” Marty said. “Very few BD-5J planes are still flying today. Apparently, about 5,000 kits were sold in the early 1980s, but less than 150 exist completed today.”
Marty found a second plane housed in a storage unit in California. “It was available, and it had never flown (no surprise). The guy who owned it really wanted to sell it as his storage unit lease was about to expire. I worked a fair price with the seller, and I paid more than he was asking if he would deliver the plane to me near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One more thing, this jet had a heavy engine, which was no use to me, so I paid extra to have the jet engine removed before he transported it across the country.”
Two months later, the plane was delivered to ASD’s office building, but Marty discovered there was a big problem.
“This small jet, even in pieces, could not fit through my double front door!” he said. “Fortunately, I happen to have a hangar at an airport nearby. That’s where we ended up moving and storing the plane while we worked up a color design for the convention.”
That process took several weeks, as about eight people were involved in the branding. “We needed to find how to get these colors onto the plane,” Marty said. “Pat Kane worked tirelessly on the color scheme and the solution. It seemed we had two options, paint the plane or wrap the plane. Wrapping seemed the right answer, as it is much more flexible and allows color gradients to be used.”
After convincing a wrap company that they had no intent to fly the plane (it’s dangerous and illegal to fly a wrapped airplane per FAA rules and regulations), and that they only wanted to display at trade shows, they were in business.
Looking back at everything, the exhibition at NFDA was a success, Andrew said.
“We can, of course, believe we have the most incredible idea, but it’s the directors who ultimately determine our success by their willingness to offer our services to families,” he said. “NFDA was an amazing opportunity to present to the world what we have been working on, and the conversations were abundant. At times, we had members from the ASD booth come over to speak with people because Pat and I were already busy talking to others. The BD-5 jet was a showstopper and the perfect conversation-starter.”
The Details
The actual Cremation Air scatterings will be done via a 2013 Beechcraft Bonanza G36 that the Czachor family owns, which can fit six people and is too big to place on a tradeshow floor.
That plane has been modified to include an access panel in a rear seat that leads to the underside of the aircraft, which includes a custom fabricated scattering chute that was 3D-printed by the ASD team.
“We went through multiple iterations to ensure safety and performance,” Kane explained.
So far, the company has been focused on cultivating relationships with funeral homes, explaining how the scattering process works and spreading awareness about the service it provides.
“We’ve had great conversations with funeral homes throughout the country – there are lots of firms excited about adding this service,” Kane said. “It’s just a matter of the right family coming in looking for this option and the director being able to say, ‘We have that.’”
When those families do start to walk through the doors of funeral homes, Cremation Air will be ready.
Growth will depend on funeral homes telling families that aerial scattering is an option. The idea is sure to resonate with a significant number of families, Kane believes.
“It comes down to funeral directors listening to what families are looking for and weaving this into the discussion,” he said. “One of the benefits of cremation is the wide range of memorialization options — families can choose many different things, and this can be one component. Some remains may be used for jewelry … and a portion of it may be given to us for scattering.”
He also sees multiple shots at the goal.
“Our model has focused primarily on at-need services, but we’ve also discussed preplanning – and another issue is families at home with multiple urns,” he said. “People begin to wonder what to do with accumulated remains. Two generations later, families may not know who those individuals were.”
Cremation Air has gone through dozens of test flights, which have shown aerial scattering can be done without any mishaps, such as remains coming back into the plane and creating a mess. “We’ve paid close attention to the physics to ensure this does not happen,” Kane explained.
That includes making sure the scattering chute is the right distance below the plane and doing everything just right to achieve a plume effect that can be captured on video and shared with family members and loved ones.
The technology that’s involved in offering such a service is substantial: The Czachor family installed a camera system on the plane to capture the scattering of the cremated remains. When cremated remains go into the chute, it triggers a camera system and activates GPS coordinates, so the family knows exactly where the cremated remains of their loved one were scattered.
Throughout the launch, Andrew’s involvement and leadership has been crucial, Kane said.
“Andrew has been heavily involved, especially through nine months of testing,” Kane said. “While he doesn’t work at the business full time – he’s currently in law school – he has played a major role. We collaborate on social media, marketing and defining our voice. He has also helped determine pricing efficiency and flight logistics, so directors can make appropriate margins while we remain sustainable.”
He’s also continued a Czachor family tradition of taking to the skies as a pilot, as multiple family members have had a passion for flying.
“I have flown with him multiple times, and the biggest takeaway is how safe I have felt,” Kane said.
Ready to Work with Funeral Homes Nationwide
Cremation Air is based in Media, Pennsylvania, and Tampa, Florida, but it can work with funeral homes throughout the country.
It is focused on scattering cremated remains in the Gulf, along the Atlantic Coast from Florida to Maine and over the Great Lakes. Cremated remains are scattered over the water from a minimum of 3,000 feet.
“Technically, we can scatter wherever we want as long as it is three miles offshore,” Kane said. “There are some limited no-fly zones, particularly in military areas, including parts of Virginia.”
Every coastal town will be prepopulated on a Cremation Air dashboard, so funeral directors can select where they want cremated remains to be scattered, he said.
Pricing, Chain of Custody and More
It doesn’t matter where a funeral home is located – the cost to scatter remains via Cremation Air is a flat fee.
The company offers a two-tiered pricing structure: One for ASD partners and another for non-ASD clients.
“We aimed for funeral directors to sell the service for $800 to $1,500,” Kane said, noting that Cremation Air was determined to offer pricing that would allow funeral homes to earn a tidy profit on the service.
As a result, pricing is as follows:
- $395 per aerial scattering for ASD partners.
- $650 per aerial scattering for non-ASD partners.
“Every scattering is an individual scattering – we do not do mass scatterings,” Kane said. “When orders are lined up, we will create a flight plan, fly along a route and scatter each set of cremated remains at the specified location. Each scattering will be filmed individually.”
Cremation Air can scatter the remains of up to 60 people once it lays out a flight plan. “That is the ultimate goal to maximize the value of each flight,” Kane said, who noted that in any given month, there are usually 18 to 20 days in which it is feasible to fly. Other days are lost due to bad weather.
The Cremation Air team has also worked extremely hard to provide funeral homes and families with peace of mind surrounding the chain of custody process.
“A Cremation Air barcode is included in the packaging when cremated remains are sent, and we scan it on receipt and send a confirmation message – and then we scan it again when the flight is scheduled and again on the day of the flight. The final scan occurs immediately before the cremated remains are placed into the scattering chute,” Kane said, explaining how the process will work.
When families opt for scattering from Cremation Air, they will receive a memorial video that will include uploaded images from the family, along with footage of the entire scattering, Kane said.
Asked whether the company could scatter the cremated remains of pets, Kane noted that FAA regulations do not allow it.
The company also does not scatter cremated remains over the land, although that may not always be the case.
“We would love to add this in the future, but land scatterings introduce more complexity with private landowners, permits and cost and time variables,” he said. “We chose a simplified model.”
Looking Ahead
Once Cremation Air is working with enough families, it would like to expand its focus to include the Pacific Coast.
“That would require adding another plane,” Kane said.
For now, it’s open to working with Pacific Coast firms and scattering cremated remains on a quarterly basis. “We would need to accumulate cremated remains over a period of time … so that when we make our way to the West Coast, we have full flights and are efficient with our flight plans,” Kane said.
The company could even explore allowing family members on flights in the future, but that would entail navigating additional FAA regulations. “There would be some logistical steps required for that … and that is further down the road,” Kane said.
Competition in the space is light, with many aerial scattering companies preferring to market directly to the public instead of through funeral homes, Kane said.
“We occasionally receive inquiries from the public and explain that we only work through funeral homes,” Kane said. “Our goal is to support directors, not compete with them.”
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