Cessna crash claims retired fighter pilot
PLAIN CITY — An experienced Air Force fighter pilot from Arizona died Sunday when a Cessna plane he was flying in snowy weather crashed in a field off Route 42 in Union County.
Matthew A. Hayden, 44, of Phoenix, had taken off from Dayton International Airport at 5:17 p.m. and was headed to Delaware Municipal Airport in Delaware County, according to the Union County sheriff’s office.
The 1974 Cessna 421B fixed-wing, multi-engine plane was owned by Classic Solutions Company Inc. in Bakersfield, California. Hayden had just picked up the plane at the Dayton airport, Union County Sheriff Jamie Patton said. He said Hayden was flying to Delaware to meet a friend and was expected to move on from there to another destination.
The eight-seat Cessna he was flying went down at 5:42 p.m. near Route 42 between Harriott and Bell roads in Jerome Township, about 7 miles northeast of Plain City and near the Delaware County line. The aircraft broke into hundreds of pieces in the field.
A witness heard the plane descending and then the crash, and called 911 as he headed to the scene. He stayed on the phone as he came upon the wreckage.
“It just exploded; our power flickered out,” the caller told a dispatcher. When asked if there are any survivors, he told the dispatcher: “Oh, there’s no way.”
Patton said friends of Hayden’s told authorities that he had only recently retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel. Hayden was a 1998 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and a renowned military pilot and flight instructor. He had served as a test pilot in both the F-16 and F-35 fighter jets and had piloted the F-16 in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The public-affairs office at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, where he last served, said officers who knew Hayden were all saddened by the news Monday.
His list of accomplishments is long, and the Air Force said he had more than 2,500 flight hours in at least 30 types of aircraft. He made his mark as a test pilot in experimental aircraft, and he had been, before his retirement, a commander of the 56th Training Squadron at Luke.
Craig Hatch, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, arrived on the scene about noon Monday. He said it’s too early to say whether the snowy weather on Sunday was a factor in the crash.
Hatch said Hayden reported no problems over his radio before the crash.
Debris stretched across fields on both sides of Route 42. Power poles were also sheared off or otherwise damaged. Route 42 from Route 33 to the Delaware County line was closed until about 4 a.m. Monday for the investigation. The highway was shut off again in the afternoon for about two hours while investigators gathered evidence; it reopened about 3:30 p.m.
Hatch said he hoped to have all the wreckage cleared away Tuesday. He said the full investigation could take a year.