Central Illinois Pilots 'Numb' After Fatal Crash in Lincoln
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BLOOMINGTON — Central Illinois is home to several small flying clubs and private pilots, and after the initial shock that followed the fatal airplane crash outside Lincoln Tuesday morning, a longtime pilot said the brotherhood of aviation enthusiasts is “numbed and quiet.”
“I think at first there is a sense of respect and numbness where we don’t try to talk or speculate about what happened,” said John Morgan of Bloomington, who has been flying professionally for more than 40 years.
When more information is revealed from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board crash investigation, Morgan said the aviation community will be able to learn.
“We examine ourselves, what we can do better as an industry, what we can do better as professional pilots,” he said. “And that's really all we can do is learn and go on.”
Steven Barnes, safety officer for the Flying 20 Club in Springfield, hopes the NTSB can “shed light on it.”
“It definitely makes us think. When we hear things like that, everyone reaches out to pilots they know,” said Barnes, a certified private pilot since 2003. “It’s a tight-knit community. We definitely look out for each other.”
The Springfield aviation community recently suffered its own loss, when a small private plane crashed near Springfield. Among the dead were the county coroner and a former fire chief.
Morgan met Mitchell Janssen, the pilot from Princeville who was flying the Cessna 172 when it crashed Tuesday, as part of the aviation community, but did not know him personally.
“He carried himself very well as a professional,” he said of the young pilot.
When tragedies like this happen, “you always kind of place yourselves in the families’ shoes," Morgan said. "I just can’t imagine the parents, the siblings, the loved ones who have lost such a young life.”
Passengers Matthew R. Hanson, 33, of Pulaski, Wis., and Kevin G. Chapman, 30, of Urbana, also died in the crash.
After decades in the industry, Morgan has had the opportunity to watch pilots come up in the industry, and many begin as flight instructors like Janssen.
“A lot of us start out as flight instructors ourselves and there’s a sense of pride in knowing we had a part in someone else’s professional development,” he said.
Barnes said working hard to earn certification and keep it creates a sense of camaraderie among pilots.
“It's a small faction of people that do fly so when you do become a part of that community … there’s a kinship there,” Barnes said.
Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer.
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