TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Tampa Company's Pilot Vanishes Over Africa

ADVERTISEMENT

By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 23, 2007

Updated: 08/23/2007 11:11 am

TAMPA - An American woman flying solo over Africa for a Tampa-based airplane delivery service disappeared over the weekend, and her colleagues fear the worst.

Lori Love, 57, of Wichita, Kan., flew for Wings of Eagles, a Tampa-based company that delivers airplanes, said Steve Hall, the owner.

He said the bulk of the planes are delivered across the Atlantic Ocean from North and South America to Europe and Africa.

Hall was in his office Thursday, hoping to hear good news but bracing himself for the worst.

He's been in the business for nearly four decades and hasn't had a plane go down for 27 years, he said. He contracts with 10 part-time pilots to fly planes to buyers. Love, he said, was one of his most experienced pilots.

"She had over 15,000 hours," Hall said. She was certified on fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.

"She first came to work for me in 1978," Hall said. In addition to her flight experience, she had logged more than 4,000 parachute jumps and recently received her Ph.D. in special education from the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Hall said she was delivering a 1997 Beechcraft A-36 Bonanza from South Carolina to a buyer she was to meet in Cape Town, South Africa. The aircraft was equipped with an additional fuel tank in the back seat, which enabled Love to fly over the Atlantic Ocean, Hall said. The trip was to last seven or eight days, Hall said. She was five days into the trip.

She left Accra, Ghana, Friday night after stopping to refuel and had radio contact for about an hour, Hall said. "And then, nobody heard from her."

"I not only knew her, but I respected her ability," Hall said. "There are pilots, and there are pilots' pilots. And then there was Lori."

"I can't tell you how upset this makes me," Hall said.

Ghana air traffic control attempted to contact the plane about an hour after it took off and asked another aircraft to try to establish contact, without success, air traffic officials in Ghana said.

She was 2,300 miles from her destination, in an area with large areas not covered by radar.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT