Champion aerobatics pilot killed in plane crash
A CHAMPION aerobatics pilot who taught Carol Vorderman to loopthe-loop has been killed in a plane crash.
Emily Collett, 36, and student flier Tom Castle, 43, died when a Pitts S-2A plane – which has a top speed of 200mph – crashed into a field.
Mrs Collett, an aerobatics national champion in 2016, taught the former Countdown presenter and pilot how to perform a loop-the-loop in her two-seater aircraft in July 2017.
Vorderman, who was raised in Prestatyn, has her own private pilot’s licence.
She wrote on Twitter on Sunday: “Such a terrible, terrible loss. Emily was an extraordinary young woman and pilot and my time with her in the air was nothing but a joy.
“My heart goes out to her husband Mike, to Emily’s family and to Tom Castle’s family in their grief. Rest in Peace.”
Mrs Collett was reportedly practising spins with Mr Castle when her small plane went down near the village of Stonor in Oxfordshire on Saturday afternoon.
She had taken off from White Waltham airfield near Maidenhead, Berkshire, earlier in the day.
Mrs Collett and her husband Mike ran Ultimate Aerobatics from the airfield – the base of the West London Aero Club – and competed with the British Advanced Aerobatics team. They both learnt aerobatics – involving spins, rolls and loops – in the Pitts S-2A, according to their company’s website.
Mrs Collett, who was inspired to become a pilot after seeing a fighter jet aged nine and had her first flying lesson when she was 14, won the UK standard class nationals in G-ODDS using the plane.