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Air show pilot dies in crash

By General Aviation News Staff · January 20, 2006 ·

Air show pilot Eric Beard was killed Jan. 6 when his Piper Seneca crashed in fog in Skagit County, Wash.

Beard, 47, was flying for Airpac Airlines, a cargo company, at the time of the crash. The plane’s wreckage was found about 400 yards from the runway at Skagit Bayview Airport (BVS) near Mount Vernon. Beard was known on the air show circuit as the pilot of “Russian Thunder,” a Yak 54.

A NASA engineer, he was part of the Space Shuttle and Titan rocket programs.

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