Mom who died with tot on ‘ghost plane’ struggled to have ‘miracle child’

The tragic Hamptons Realtor killed with her little girl in a “ghost plane’’ crash can at least rest in peace with her “miracle baby,’’ who she struggled for years to conceive, friends told The Post on Monday.

“It would be fitting that they are together,” said grieving childhood pal Tara Brivic-Looper of Adina Azarian, a top longtime New York real-estate agent, and the victim’s 2-year-old daughter, Aria — two of four people killed when their private jet crashed in rural Virginia on Sunday.

“I don’t think they ever weren’t together, so if Adina was going anywhere, Aria was always with her,” Brivic-Looper said.

Brivic-Looper and other pals said Aria was the most important thing to the successful single mom, who worked for Keller Williams Realty, Inc. in East Hampton and her own Adina Equities in Manhattan.

They described how Azarian suffered through miscarriages and failed rounds of in-vitro fertilization before finally giving birth to Aria — which helps explain why the proud mom always kept her daughter so close.

“She went through everything as a single woman to have a baby, and I can’t say since Aria’s been born, I don’t think I’ve seen her twice without her,” said Brivic-Looper, 47, who attended the prestigious Dwight School in Manhattan with Azarian.

“It was just the two of them every single day. That was what she always wanted.”

Another stricken friend, Judy Sahagian, 47, added, “We work hard in our lives, and — especially us women — we become accomplished, and you’re in the papers, and you’re all over, everywhere, and what’s the next thing to look forward to? What’s the best legacy in life that you can leave? A family.

“And that went with her. And that is so tragic,” the Realtor said of Azarian’s untimely death. “I would never have bet in a million years that this is how she would leave the world.

“And her daughter dying with her. And all the trouble she went through to have a daughter — oh, my God.”

Azarian – the adopted daughter of John and Barbara Rumpel, of Encore Motors of Melbourne, Inc. – made no secret of her struggle to have a child.

She wrote in a 2020 Facebook post that being a mother was the “greatest honor of my life” after Aria’s birth.

“Three years ago I decided I wanted to choose to become a mother,” Azarian wrote. “With my biological clock ticking, I ended up on a long journey of fertility treatments, IUI, IVF, multiple miscarriages, failed embryo transfers and more.

“I went inward and drew upon my own inner strength to keep going. It was hard but I knew deep down there would be a miracle if I did not give up.”

Azarian gave birth to Aria on Sept. 28, 2020, and she said she was sharing her story in hopes of inspiring others to never give up on the gift of being a parent.

“I offer my story as a source of inspiration for any woman going through the same struggles with infertility or simply with the decision to create your own family on our own terms,” she wrote. “Sometimes life takes you places where you didn’t imagine it at first but where there is faith, where there is courage, where there is God, there is also hope.

“And that incredible love you seek is there for you. And with that, be strong, be brave and remember miracles do happen,” she added, sharing a pic of her holding baby Aria. “I am holding one right now.”

Brivic-Looper said she and Azarian had talked about their hopes for their own families years ago, and while Brivic Looper opted for adoption, she said Azarian was committed to giving birth to her own child.

“What she went through wasn’t easy,” she added. “There were miscarriages and there was everything, but she didn’t give up. I was so proud of her.

“A lot of women would be like, ‘I was single, I didn’t have what I wanted.’ She was like, ‘Nope. I’m going to do it. I’m going to have a baby.’ ”

The grieving friend said Azarian wanted Aria to grow up to be a strong New Yorker like her mother, who she described as “a New York girl and Hamptons girl.”

Despite her parents’ spending on GOP causes, including a $250,000 donation to the Trump Victory PAC in 2020, Azarian kept herself out of politics, Brivic-Looper said.

The Rumpels confirmed Sunday that their daughter and granddaughter died in the crash after visiting them in North Carolina and heading back to East Hampton. The tot’s nanny and the plane’s pilot also perished.

The private aircraft departed Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tenn., heading for Long Island’s MacArthur Airport in New York that afternoon, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. 

It reached the New York area before turning toward Virginia, according to the flight-tracking website Flight Aware.

After the plane entered a restricted zone and with no response from the pilot, two F-16s were deployed and were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds, causing the sonic boom that was heard across the capital and neighboring communities in Maryland and Virginia.

After flying over DC, the “ghost plane” — a term used in situations including when the pilot loses consciousness and the aircraft continues to fly — continued its chaotic descent.

Aviation experts have said they believe there was a catastrophic loss of oxygen in the plane that rendered the pilot and passengers incapacitated.

The plane dropped more than 30,000 feet per minute before crashing.

First responders told CNN that given the wreckage and crater left behind, the incident likely ended in a near-nosedive crash.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are currently investigating the cause of the incident, with officials noting that it would have a preliminary report ready within three weeks.