Posted on 05/02/2026 7:46:14 PM PDT by Red Badger
Five pickleball players died in a tragic plane crash in Texas on Thursday night as they were making their way to a tournament.
The players, all from the Amarillo Pickleball Club, have been identified as Seren Wilson, 19; Brooke Skypala, 45; Stacy Hedrick, 51; Justin “Glen” Appling, 37; and Hayden Dillard, 39.
“Today, the Club has received terrible news that we all must mourn in the loss of five members of our Amarillo pickleball family,” the club wrote in a Facebook post.
The announcement prompted several commenters to pay their respects.
“They were the greatest people I’ve ever met! Every tournament I was, at they were also there, and they were a hoot,” one person wrote.
“This breaks my heart. Praying for the family, friends, and all the pickleball community. May the Lord be their comfort in their time of need,” wrote another.
Pickleball participants draw heavily from the ranks of tennis players, and that was the case for the youngest victim in the crash, 19-year-old Seren Wilson.
The youthful pickleball player was memorialized by her high school tennis team.
“We are heartbroken to hear the terrible news of the loss of Amarillo High School graduate and Sandie Tennis alumni, Seren Wilson,” Amarillo High School team wrote.
“Seren loved big, and her presence, encouragement, and spirit will be deeply missed by so many.”
Two planes departed Amarillo bound for New Braunfels on Thursday. The doomed flight, a Cessna 421C, fell to the ground in a fiery explosion 40 miles south of Austin at 11 P.M. local time.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
RIP to all.
Amen.
RIP. Fly commercial. There’s a reason small planes are so expensive to insure.
This model ceased production in 1985.
Looks like it spun in. Weather?
No idea. My guess is mechanical failure...........
😢
Old, small planes. Even less desirable to be on than commercial ones.
Wouldnt mind a new learjet or honda jet though.
Pickleball is for young people?
More details, including a pic of the crash scene, at tg7s link...
Geezers play it a lot & young people are playing it more maybe because it doesn’t require a lot of movement unless you’re an elite player. Like table tennis just on a really big table... LOL
Correct. I think it was a flat spin by the looks of the debris field. The outline of the debris clearly shows the shape of the aircraft and the debris field is small. I find it difficult to believe just a iced up pitot could cause the pilot to lose control. If you lose your airspeed indicator just fly it by power settings and attitude. Since the pitot was iced up I wonder about air frame icing? Did the pilot forget to turn on the pitot heat? Was the pilot closely monitoring the wings for ice and activating deicing equipment?
I forgot to add that the 421 is not very forgiving in a spin and a flat spin can not be recovered from. See attached link:
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