Army Skydiving Plane, Cessna Collide, Killing Military Pilot
MARANA, Ariz. — An airplane used by the Army’s Golden Knights skydiving team went down Friday after colliding with a civilian aircraft after a training jump at a rural airport, a military spokeswoman said.
Chief Warrant Officer Lowell K. Timmons, the military pilot, was killed, the Army said. No hometown or age was available for Timmons.
Lt. Col. Marian Hansen said the four Golden Knights parachutists aboard had jumped from the UV20 Porter turboprop plane before the collision. The plane landed in a crumpled heap in a dry riverbed a mile north of the Marana Airport.
“It’s a terrible tragedy whenever we lose one of our soldiers,” Hansen said.
The civilian plane, a Cessna, landed safely, said Keith Holloway, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, which was investigating the crash along with the military.
The Golden Knights are based at Ft. Bragg, N.C., but the competition team involved in Friday’s crash had been practicing at the Marana airport, about 20 miles north of Tucson, said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command.
He said the team trains in Arizona during the winter.
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