She had started taking flying lessons about the time our divorce started (1975) and she got her license shortly before our divorce was final,later that same year.
Yesterday afternoon, she narrowly escaped injury in the aircraft she was piloting when she was forced to make an emergency landing in Southern Illinos because of bad weather.
Some could call it a crash; an accident at the least. Our kids were with me at the house this weekend.
National Transportation Safety Board officials have issued a preliminary determination citing pilot error contributed to the accident, and Carole was flying a single engine aircraft (a basic model, at best) in IFR (instrument flight rating) conditions while only having obtained a VFR (visual flight rating) rating.
The absence of a post-crash fire was likely due to insufficient fuel on board. No one on the ground was injured.
Photographs below were taken at the scene show the extent of damage to her aircraft.
She was very lucky.
