Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— An Oregon woman crashed into a salt marsh adjacent to the North Florida Regional Airport near St. Augustine, 15 minutes after she left the Keystone Heights Airport.
Marianne Fox, 49, was piloting an Extra NG aerobatic plane when she departed Keystone Heights around 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2.
She was flying with her fiancée Jim Bourke, who is president of the International Aerobatic Club. Bourke was a separate Extra NG.
Bourke declared an emergency when the two planes were around seven miles west of the St. Augustine airport,
“My flight partner is having engine trouble,” the lead pilot radioed to the St. Augustine tower. “The engine is not running well; she’s trailing smoke and she’s making a beeline for the airport right now.”
Bourke was then heard telling Fox she was coming in too high and instructing her to execute a slip: turning the plane somewhat sideways to increase drag on the fuselage, hastening the aircraft’s descent.
“You’re going to make it now, Marianne,” Bourke said. “Just cut the throttle and slip it in. You’ve got a lot of energy now. Just cut the throttle and slip it really deep.”
Fox’s plane overran the runway and flipped over before coming to rest in the marsh, about 600 yards beyond the end of the runway.
The tower reported a crosswind at the facility that could have hampered Fox’s landing.
St. Johns Fire Rescue said it took six minutes to reach the plane and an additional four minutes to extract Fox from the wreckage. The agency added that it used an airboat to reach the site.
The tower radioed to first responders after the crash, indicating that Fox was trapped in the cockpit.
“Alright airport people, that woman needs help out there,” an air traffic controller radioed. “She’s trapped in the cockpit. She needs help.”
Fox was first transported to Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine but was later airlifted to a trauma unit. She died 12 hours after the crash.
Bourke told an Oregon television station that after performing a few aerobatic flights over the Keystone Airport, the couple had lunch together in Keystone before taking off for St. Augustine.
Fox lived in Corvallis, Oregon where she owned a clothing store: ReStyle Resale. She earned her private pilot’s license in 2019 and started competing in aerobatics competitions the following year.
