NAMES IN THE NEWS : Voyager Co-Pilot Safe in Crash
Jeana Yeager, who made history in the non-stop round-the-world flight of the Voyager in 1986, escaped injury Sunday when an experimental plane she was co-piloting lost power and crashed on landing.
Elko County Sheriff’s Deputy James Neff said the 38-year-old Yeager of Nipomo, Calif., and the plane’s pilot, Shirland K. Dickey, 48, of Chandler, Ariz., walked away from the craft.
The deputy said the pair were flying an experimental propeller-driven plane in the Eighth Annual International E-Z Air Show and were on the final approach of a 120-mile race between Jackpot and Wells, Nev., when their engine caught fire about four miles from the runway.
“Basically, it was a dead-stick landing,” the deputy said. On touching down, the plane left the runway and its landing gear collapsed, he said.
Yeager and pilot Dick Rutan set aviation history in December, 1986, when they flew the Voyager in a nine-day unrefueled circumnavigation of the globe.
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