Vlado lenoch biography

A Burr Ridge pilot killed Sunday in a crash in Kansas is being remembered as an excellent pilot and wonderful man.

Vlado Lenoch, 64, and his passenger died after the World War II-era P-51 Mustang fighter he was flying crashed one day after it flew in a festival that celebrates famed aviator Amelia Earhart in her Kansas hometown.

The crash occurred at about 10:15 a.m.

Sunday when the 1944 plane turned around, dove toward the ground and crashed in a field about 5 miles south of the Amelia Earhart Memorial Airport in Atchison, the Kansas Highway Patrol reported on its website.

His passenger, 34-year-old Bethany Root, the manager of the Amelia Earhart airport, was also killed.

Atchison is near the Missouri border in northeastern Kansas.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board likely will not have voice recordings to help them determine what caused the plane to crash.

Atchison County Sheriff Jack Laurie said an NTSB official reported the plane was not required to Vlado Lenoch Obituary - Death Notice and Service Information VEP