World’s only female Spitfire pilot killed in car crash
THE world’s only female Spitfire pilot has died in a car crash, her family has announced.
Carolyn Grace pioneered the restoration of the Second World War fighters in the 1980s with her late husband, Nick, at their home in Cornwall.
When he died in a car crash in 1988, she learnt to fly the planes they restored together in his memory and clocked up more than 900 hours over the next three decades, appearing at air shows and memorial events across Europe.
Their ML407 plane, known as the “Grace Spitfire”, was the first to shoot down an enemy aircraft on D-day in June 1944 and is one of only a handful of working models still in existence.
Mrs Grace, originally from Australia, died after a crash in New South Wales on Dec 2, 34 years after her husband suffered the same fate, her family confirmed. The 70-year-old was driving in Goulburn, about 120 miles south-west of Sydney, when she collided with a pick-up truck.
Mrs Grace was airlifted to hospital but died of her injuries, while her 38-year-old son, Richard, a passenger in the car, survived the crash and was treated for minor injuries.
Her daughter said the family had been left “traumatised” by her unexpected death.
Daisy Grace, who helped run the Spitfire restoration business in Northamptonshire, said: “It is with great sadness that we must announce that Carolyn Grace has been killed in a car accident on Friday. This is a traumatic, and unexpected, loss to all of us.”
Mrs Grace’s death prompted tributes from hundreds of aviation enthusiasts and institutions who described her as an “inspirational woman” and a “legend of the sky”.
Andy Saunders, a Battle of Britain historian, said: “It is a tragic irony that she has died in a car crash, just as Nick had died in 1988.
“Her death is a huge loss to the world of historic aviation.”