Sad day in Aviation & Racing

[CAPFlyer]

Today, Scott Kalitta was killed in a drag racing accident during the last round of qualifying at Englishtown, NH. A massive engine failure caused separation of his Funny Car's body at 300+MPH and subsequently the drag chutes did not deploy properly. He impacted the end wall at an estimated 200-250MPH.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Connie (Scott's father) in 2004. He was a very warm gentleman and you could see his love of aviation and of racing when you spoke to him. His family and the family of my employers at the time are friends and I know this time is extremely hard on both, especially Scott's wife and 2 sons.

As most of you know, Kalitta Air was first founded by Connie as American International Airways many moons ago. While both Doug and Scott worked for AIA and later Kalitta, their passion was and is in racing. Doug races in the Pro Stock class and Scott raced in the Funny Car class.

The Kalitta Racing website (www.kalittaracing.com) is down right now, however when it does come back, I encourage everyone to extend their condolences to the family as they are one of the classiest in drag racing and Scott was one of the most respected Funny Car racers at the track.

[Moonlight]

Just a quick note of correction (I used to fly for one of the team owners, the guy that owns the cars driven by Hillary Will, Greg Anderson, and Jason Line). Doug drives in the Top Fuel class, not Pro Stock.

I also have met Connie, Scott, and Doug. They are great, no nonsense, guys. It seems like there has been a disturbing trend in the nitro cars in the last few years: Darryl Russell, Eric Medlin, and now Scott.

I remember standing out on the starting line (one of the perks of my job was team shirts and credentials)...it was such a thrill, but there was always that little voice in the back of my head that would whisper, "I hope I'm not about to witness a tragedy".

[Robbie Roberts]

I was sad to hear of Scott's passing yesterday...

Is the family still owners of Kalitta Air? They just had a cargo 747 crash on takeoff a couple weeks back, in Belgium, I think.

Robbie

[CAPFlyer]

Yes, they are still doing the flying side as well and yes it was one of their 747s that overran the runway at Brussels a few weeks back.

Connie tried to get out of the heavy haul about 15 years ago when he sold AIA to KittyHawk International, but after they went into Chapter 11, he re-invested in them and eventually started Kalitta Air to fly heavies on various ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, Insurance) contracts for bigger cargo carriers. During the meantime though his wife had been running Kalitta Charters II which flew (actually flies as they're still active) Learjets on high-priority charter cargo operations.

Thanks for the correction on Doug, ML. I was thinking Jeg Coughlin for some reason.

[51fixer]

Sad moment this am as I got on PA turnpike to head to the airport. Kallita racing truck pulled up next to me and we drove side by side for most of the 15+ miles to King of Prussia.
Rich