Nov 8th, 2017

Roy Halladay and Thurman Munson

Posted in Aviation News

Former major league baseball pitcher Roy Halladay passed from this earth on Tuesday, November 7 as the result of an airplane crash.  It reminded me of another baseball great, Thurman Munson from 38 years earlier

Halladay pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies, from 1998 to 2013.  He won two Cy Young Awards (earned by the best pitcher in the league) and was on 8 All-Star teams.  More impressively he threw not one, but two no-hitters.  This included only the 20th perfect game (no hits and no walks) thrown in the history of major league baseball.  It seems like yesterday that I heard Marty Brennaman, the voice of the Cincinnati Reds, call a no-hitter as Halliday blanked the Reds in the 2010 playoffs.  It was only the second no-hitter ever thrown in the post season.

Halladay was flying an ICON A5, which is an amphibious aircraft.  The plane can float and the wings fold up over the plane.  It is a beautiful aircraft and can be seen at:  https://www.iconaircraft.com/a5  Halladay had been a pilot for three years, following in the footsteps of his Dad, who was a commercial pilot.

The crash occurred in the Gulf of Mexico.  While a definite cause of the accident cannot be made at this point, it seems that Halladay was doing some aggressive climbs and dives.  Some reported it to be almost show boating.  Like any other crash, this will be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and a report will be filed.  Examples of accident investigations can be found at: https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/index.aspx  I estimate that it will be 3-6 months before the report is made public.

Fans under the age of 50 will likely not know that is déjà vu.  The New York Yankees had a star catcher in the 1970s named Thurman Munson.  Munson was a 7 time All-Star and the American League Most Valuable Player in 1976.  He was on his way to putting together a Hall of Fame career.  That all came to an end in 1979 when he died in a plane crash.

Munson had decided to fly in order to get home more frequently.  He earned his pilots license in 1978.  Unfortunately Munson had the means to buy more of an aircraft than he could handle at that stage of his pilot career.  He purchased a Cessna Citation jet.  On August 2, 1979 he was practicing approaches at Akron-Canton Regional Airport.  He allowed the aircraft to get too low on final approach.  The jet clipped a tree and crashed into a stump, bursting into flames.  He was gone at age 32.

Halladay did not have his career ended by the crash, but did have his earthy life ended.  It reminds me of the old expression pictured below.  To which I can just solemnly say, Amen.

 

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