The 70th annual Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, witnessed a tragic series of events, with four fatalities resulting from two separate aviation crashes . Among the victims was Devyn Reiley, 30, daughter of two-time Super Bowl champion Bruce Collie, who played for the San Francisco 49ers via the New York Post.
The first accident occurred around 9 am when a World War II-era T-6 Texan aircraft, piloted by Reiley and her co-pilot Zach Colliemoreno, 20, plunged into Lake Winnebago shortly after takeoff. The second crash happened a few hours later when an ELA 10 Eclipse gyrocopter collided mid-air with a RotorWay162F helicopter, killing the helicopter pilot, Mark Peterson, 69, and passenger Thomas Volz, 72, as reported by KRON4.
Reiley, who obtained her private pilot's license in 2017, was passionate about aviation and deeply involved in the aviation community. With her husband, Hunter, she co-owned a Texas-based flight school and co-founded the Texas Warbird Museum, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving retired WWII-era military aircraft.
(Devyn Reiley - Facebook)
The aircraft involved in the second crash were not part of the airshow, and both pilots were attendees. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is currently investigating the cause of both accidents.
EAA CEO Jack Pelton expressed his condolences, stating, "it's tough there's a family here as you know and you never like to see anything happen to anybody and we'll recover and figure out the next steps," as reported by KRON4.
Reiley's father, Bruce Collie, was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in 1985 and won two Super Bowls with the team in 1989 and 1990 before being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles and retiring in 1991.
