Pilot killed in West Virginia air show crash was passionate flier
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The pilot of a post-World War II plane that crashed into a runway and exploded during a West Virginia air show was a passionate flier and Air Force veteran who always put safety first, the man’s son said Sunday.
John “Flash” Mangan of Concord, N.C., was killed Saturday when his T-28 plane crashed and burst into flames at an airport near Martinsburg, W.Va., as hundreds of horrified spectators looked on. It came a day after a plane crashed during an air race in Reno, killing the pilot and eight others and sending dozens to the hospital.
“He was a great pilot and a wonderful parent and husband,” Sean Mangan, 27, said of his 54-year-old father.
The elder Mangan graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy, served in the Air Force for 13 years and had been piloting planes for more than three decades, Sean Mangan told the Associated Press. He had flown on the T-28 Warbird Aerobatic Formation Demonstration Team for five years.
Full coverage: Deadly crash at Reno air show
He was married and had three children. He also was a partner in a chain of fast-food restaurants in Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Sean Mangan said.
The T-28 aerobatic team is known as the Trojan Horsemen. Mangan’s biography on the team’s website said the former Air Force fighter pilot won three Meritorious Service Medals and Tactical Air Command’s Instructor Pilot of the Year award.
Federal officials are investigating what caused Mangan’s plane to crash. Spokesman Jim Peters of the Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday he expected the National Transportation Safety Board to release a preliminary accident report this week.
Thousands of people were watching from a distance but no one was injured when the aircraft wobbled and crashed Saturday, authorities said.
The Journal of Martinsburg reported the aircraft lost control during a six-plane stunt formation and then crashed on a runway near hangers at the airfield.
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-- Associated Press