Pilot Dies in Collision With Plane Flown by Astronaut
A stunt plane flown by a space shuttle commander collided with another plane during a race at an air show Saturday, sending the second craft hurtling into a cornfield and killing its pilot.
The victim was identified as Henry W. Jones Jr., a retired fighter pilot from Newport News, Va.
The other plane, a single-engine Cassutt flown by astronaut Robert L. (Hoot) Gibson, landed safely at the New Braunfels Municipal Airport, 25 miles northeast of San Antonio. No one on the ground was injured, officials said.
“The one that crashed was attempting to pass the one that did not crash . . . “ said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman T. C. Miller.
Jones’ Mingus Special, also a single-engine plane, lost a wing in the crash and tumbled through the air, breaking into several sections as it crashed, Miller said.
Gibson, 43, piloted an eight-day Challenger mission in 1984 and commanded the 1986 Columbia mission and the December, 1988, Atlantis mission.
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