I was very sad to get this email today. I thought some of you might know Nancy since she flies out of the Bay Bridge Airport by Annapolis. I went for an aerobatic flight with her a few years ago (ending with an upside down pass over Ridgely airport) and I know some other hang glider pilots who did likewise. She gave me a saying I used for years-- 'moderation is boring' -- something she said when I made a comment about how I was trying to live my life. Anyhow if you know her I thought you would want to know.
Lauren
As of last night, the news from the hospital was not hopeful. 3rd degree burns over 3/4 of her body.
Plane crash leaves pilot in critical condition
Rhonda Simmons
Staff Writer
Sunday, October 15, 2006
BRANDY STATION - Culpeper Air Fest 2006 turned tragic Saturday afternoon when a stunt plane crashed during a solo performance at Culpeper Regional Airport.
Pilot Nancy Lynn was airlifted to the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville after she crashed her Extra 300L performing multiple snap rolls.
Lynn, of Annapolis, Md., was coming out of a roll when her plane slammed into grass near the runway, not far from hundreds of horrified spectators.
The crash took place around 12:45 p.m. Seconds later, the plane burst into flames.
Lynn was in critical condition Saturday evening, according to hospital spokeswoman Mary Jane Gore.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
Culpeper County Administrator Frank Bossio, one of the first to arrive at the scene, received treatment at Culpeper Hospital for second-degree burns to his hands. Bossio, a former military pilot who is director of the airport, said this is the first crash in the Air Fest’s 10-year history.
“Frank was really the first person trying to get the plane flipped over,” said Lynn’s 18-year-old son Peter, who prior to the crash narrated her every trick on a loudspeaker.
Just before the crash
“And she’s going to transition into the death-defying flat spin,” Peter announced over the public address system.
As Peter counted her spins, one by one, Lynn buzzed over the crowd.
“Two and three, and four, and five, six,” Peter said just before impact.
“Oh, my God,” someone yelled. “Where are the fire trucks?”
As soon as the plane hit, Peter dropped his microphone and rushed to the scene.
Brandy Station Volunteer Fire and Rescue, stationed at the show, had a fire truck at the crash site less than two minutes later.
Brandy Station’s Second Assistant Chief Rick Lane, said Gordon Mackison, a Brandy Station firefighter, pulled Nancy out of the cockpit with the assistance of firefighter Tony Troilo.
Lane said Lynn suffered burns on about 90 percent of her body.
“I think my crew did everything safely to save that woman’s life,” Lane said. “They did the best they could with what they had to work with.”
Lane, a 25-year veteran, added it takes about two minutes for firefighters to put on their entire protective gear including clothing and a breathing apparatus.
As medical crews treated Lynn, Peter walked back to his microphone and told the crowd his mother was talking but had been burned.
At 1:55 p.m., Lynn was airlifted to U.Va.
“She is an extremely talented pilot,” Peter said of his mother, who has been a pilot since the mid-1970s and has performed aerobatics for the past 20 years. “I think she was doing everything she could possibly do to save the airplane.”
‘Wing tip hit the ground’
Bystanders and other pilots analyzed the crash.
“I think the wing tip hit the ground,” a spectator said. “I saw the plane sputter around, and then I turned around for a minute and all of a sudden I saw smoke.”
Peter said his mother was trying to get the plane down on all three wheels and “the wing caught on the ground and the airplane landed on its side.”
“She may have delayed her pullout,” said pilot John Corradi. “But I don’t know. She’s an excellent pilot. That was part of her act, and something must have just gone wrong.”
When asked if Lynn might have blacked out, pilot Kirk Wicker said no.
“I know she initiated a recovery,” Wicker said. “You know she initiated the recovery by the distance from where she actually hit to here (explaining the length of her initial hit to impact) before she was coming down.”
Peter made note of his mother’s intense training regimen and devotion to safety.
“Even though we create the illusion that it’s dangerous - and it is dangerous - it’s not something where we want to come out and get hurt in front of people,” he said. “It makes my heart sink as her son.”
“Right now,” he added, “we are just hoping that she pulls through.”
bad news about Nancy Lynn, GA aerobatic pilot
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
-
Lauren Tjaden
- Posts: 371
- Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2005 6:27 pm
Stunt pilot dies at Va. air show
Maryland aviator Nancy Lynn was no stranger to air tragedies during her lifetime
By Nicole Fuller
sun reporter
October 16, 2006
In past years, aerobatic flyer Nancy A. Lynn had wanted to perform at the Culpeper Air Fest in Virginia the loops, rolls and spins she had so perfected. But one year, she was thwarted by mechanical problems, and in another it was inclement weather that kept Lynn at her Annapolis-area home.
On Saturday, sometime after performers from the Bealeton Flying Circus walked along the wings of a plane in midair, she made her debut at the Air Fest, as a crowd of about 3,000 watched. Lynn's teenage son Peter Scott Muntean was there at a microphone, her show's announcer.
They witnessed a tragedy.
In her German-built Extra 300 L Standard, Lynn began a classic aerobatic trick - the snap roll, a series of rapid, horizontal spins. But suddenly her plane crashed, then skidded and erupted in flames about 1 p.m. on a grassy area of the north side of the Culpeper Regional Airport's runway, officials said.
Lynn was flown by helicopter to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Richmond, where she died about 11:45 p.m., said Sgt. F.L. Tyler of the Virginia State Police.
Spectators, including Culpeper County Administrator Frank T. Bossio, rushed to the burning aircraft in a rescue attempt.
"I just looked back over my left shoulder and I saw the aircraft just coming down," Bossio said. "The wing tip caught the ground, tipped over and caught on fire. I ran over there and the airplane was on fire. ... I just began ripping pieces off the airplane. Some other folks came with fire extinguishers."
Bossio was treated at an area hospital for second-degree burns to his hands. Yesterday, he said he could only think of Lynn's son, who calmed the crowd after the crash.
"He told the crowd, 'OK, we had an incident, calm down,'" Bossio said. "If you can imagine ... watching your mother crash in an airplane. He showed wisdom, maturity and courage well beyond his years."
The state medical examiner in Richmond will perform an autopsy. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash, Tyler said.
It was not the first crash in Lynn's family, nor the only tragedy.
In August 2000, Lynn's husband and fellow pilot, Scott E. Muntean, died of brain cancer.
It was on an airplane flight to Baltimore from Utah in 1979 that the two first met. They married in 1983, and together they owned Lynn Aviation at the Bay Bridge Airport on Kent Island, where they taught new pilots.
Scott Muntean lost his left eye in a plane crash in a cornfield in Queenstown in 1993, while practicing loops. He went back to flying six weeks later.
After her husband's death, Lynn kept the business going, teaching scores of pilots the tricks she had mastered.
In October 2003, her business partner, Mark D. Damisch, 37, of Arlington, Va., died in a plane crash over a soybean field on the Eastern Shore.
Before her flying career, Lynn, a native of Dayton, Ohio, worked as a manager for Procter & Gamble Inc. In 1997, she won second place in the International Aerobatics Club's East Coast advanced division.
In 1988, her Web site says, she discovered aerobatic flight while studying for her pilot's license. "One spin and her entire life turned 'upside down,'" reads a brief biography on the Web site. "She has been passionate about the aerial ballet ever since. After a year of taking aerobatic instruction, she cashed in her Procter & Gamble profit sharing to buy a Pitts S2B aerobatic biplane. Her aerobatic career was launched!"
In a 1998 article in The Sun, Lynn took a reporter on a flight, soaring 2,000 feet over the Bay Bridge. She maneuvered the plane in dips and swoops - then it surged upward at a 45-degree angle. She nudged a stick to her left and the plane flipped upside down.
"Why do I like doing this?" she asked. "Because I like to see the earth from a different perspective."
Maryland aviator Nancy Lynn was no stranger to air tragedies during her lifetime
By Nicole Fuller
sun reporter
October 16, 2006
In past years, aerobatic flyer Nancy A. Lynn had wanted to perform at the Culpeper Air Fest in Virginia the loops, rolls and spins she had so perfected. But one year, she was thwarted by mechanical problems, and in another it was inclement weather that kept Lynn at her Annapolis-area home.
On Saturday, sometime after performers from the Bealeton Flying Circus walked along the wings of a plane in midair, she made her debut at the Air Fest, as a crowd of about 3,000 watched. Lynn's teenage son Peter Scott Muntean was there at a microphone, her show's announcer.
They witnessed a tragedy.
In her German-built Extra 300 L Standard, Lynn began a classic aerobatic trick - the snap roll, a series of rapid, horizontal spins. But suddenly her plane crashed, then skidded and erupted in flames about 1 p.m. on a grassy area of the north side of the Culpeper Regional Airport's runway, officials said.
Lynn was flown by helicopter to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Richmond, where she died about 11:45 p.m., said Sgt. F.L. Tyler of the Virginia State Police.
Spectators, including Culpeper County Administrator Frank T. Bossio, rushed to the burning aircraft in a rescue attempt.
"I just looked back over my left shoulder and I saw the aircraft just coming down," Bossio said. "The wing tip caught the ground, tipped over and caught on fire. I ran over there and the airplane was on fire. ... I just began ripping pieces off the airplane. Some other folks came with fire extinguishers."
Bossio was treated at an area hospital for second-degree burns to his hands. Yesterday, he said he could only think of Lynn's son, who calmed the crowd after the crash.
"He told the crowd, 'OK, we had an incident, calm down,'" Bossio said. "If you can imagine ... watching your mother crash in an airplane. He showed wisdom, maturity and courage well beyond his years."
The state medical examiner in Richmond will perform an autopsy. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash, Tyler said.
It was not the first crash in Lynn's family, nor the only tragedy.
In August 2000, Lynn's husband and fellow pilot, Scott E. Muntean, died of brain cancer.
It was on an airplane flight to Baltimore from Utah in 1979 that the two first met. They married in 1983, and together they owned Lynn Aviation at the Bay Bridge Airport on Kent Island, where they taught new pilots.
Scott Muntean lost his left eye in a plane crash in a cornfield in Queenstown in 1993, while practicing loops. He went back to flying six weeks later.
After her husband's death, Lynn kept the business going, teaching scores of pilots the tricks she had mastered.
In October 2003, her business partner, Mark D. Damisch, 37, of Arlington, Va., died in a plane crash over a soybean field on the Eastern Shore.
Before her flying career, Lynn, a native of Dayton, Ohio, worked as a manager for Procter & Gamble Inc. In 1997, she won second place in the International Aerobatics Club's East Coast advanced division.
In 1988, her Web site says, she discovered aerobatic flight while studying for her pilot's license. "One spin and her entire life turned 'upside down,'" reads a brief biography on the Web site. "She has been passionate about the aerial ballet ever since. After a year of taking aerobatic instruction, she cashed in her Procter & Gamble profit sharing to buy a Pitts S2B aerobatic biplane. Her aerobatic career was launched!"
In a 1998 article in The Sun, Lynn took a reporter on a flight, soaring 2,000 feet over the Bay Bridge. She maneuvered the plane in dips and swoops - then it surged upward at a 45-degree angle. She nudged a stick to her left and the plane flipped upside down.
"Why do I like doing this?" she asked. "Because I like to see the earth from a different perspective."