Former Astronaut Dies Testing Small Plane
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DULUTH, Minn. — The astronaut who commanded one of the last successful flights of space shuttle Challenger died Friday when a small plane he was test-flying went into a spin and crashed.
Col. Robert Overmyer, 59, was wearing a parachute, but couldn’t manage to free himself from the plane, according to Carolyn, one of his daughters. “He was doing full-flap stalls at 8,000 feet and the plane turned over and went into a spin. He had the door open and was trying to get out and couldn’t get out in time,” she said from her parents’ home in Texas.
Overmyer was testing the small-engine VK30 prototype plane for the manufacturer, Cirrus Design Corp., when it went down near Duluth International Airport.
Overmyer commanded the Challenger mission that flew April 29-May 6, 1985. The Challenger flew two more times before it exploded Jan. 28, 1986.
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