Breaking News: Woman stuntwoman feared dead as plane she was riding on top of crashes in a fireball at Ohio airshow
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- Jane Wicker, wing walker, and her pilot, Charlie Schwenker, have been confirmed dead
- Their plane crashed at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton, Ohio
By Ashley Collman
PUBLISHED: 12:36 EST, 22 June 2013 | UPDATED: 14:00 EST, 22 June 2013
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A woman wing walker and her pilot were confirmed dead after their plane crashed in a ball of flames at an airshow.
Terrence Slaybaugh, the director of aviation for Dayton, confirmed their deaths around 2 p.m. The crash occurred at around 12:45 p.m.
Jane Wicker, a mother of two, was atop the biplane at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton, Ohio when it plunged to the ground in front of horrified onlookers. The pilot, Charlie Schwenker, also perished in the crash.
Air show crash: A stuntwoman and her pilot were killed after their plane crashed earlier today at an air show near Dayton, Ohio
Tragedy: Jane Wicker, one of the two confirmed dead, was a mother of two
Witnesses reported hearing screams as the plane dived to the ground.
'All of a sudden I heard screaming and looked up and there was a fire ball,” Stan Thayer of Wilmington told the Dayton Daily News.
Shawn Warwick was also at the event and watching the crash through binoculars.
“I noticed it was upside down really close to the ground. She was sitting on the bottom of the plane,” he said. “I saw it just go right into the ground and explode.”
In an interview earlier this week with WDTN, Wicker expressed to apprehension about today's flight.
'I'm never nervous or scared because I know if I do everything as I usually do, everything's going to be just fine,' Wicker said.
The air show for tomorrow has been cancelled following the fatal crash today.
Wicker was well-known as wing walker after being introduced to the daredevil activity through a Flying Circus ride she received as a birthday present.
Tragically, a picture on Facebook seems to indicate that she had recently become engaged.
Fireball: The moment Jane Wicker's plane crashed at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton, Ohio
Blaze: The crash created a massive explosion
Crash in Dayton: Jane Wicker pictured in her plane
Pilot confirmed dead: Wicker's pilot, Charlie Schwenker, also perished in the crash
Mother: Wicker was the mother of two sons. She met her now ex-husband through flying and for a while he was her pilot until the marriage dissolved
According to her website, Jane was a full-time budget-analyst at the FAA, a freelance writer and had recently returned to school to earn a degree in finance.
She first got interested in aviation after taking a ride with a friend in 1988. After her first flying lesson she was hooked and continued to pay for all of her flying lessons until she received her pilot's certificate in 1989.
Wicker went on to get her several other pilot's ratings, all while working full-time.
Wing walker: Jane was in the middle of one of her wing walking performances when her plane crashed
Air acrobat: Wicker mid-performance
For a birthday present in 1989, she was gifted with a aerobatic plane ride. She loved it and a year later applied to be a wing walker after seeing a classified ad in the Washington Post.
The first time she walked on a wing was also her first air show.
Wicker met her now ex-husband Kirk Wicker at a wing-walking audition. The two joined up and they created 'Beauty and the Beast Wing Walking' together. She would walk on the wings while Kirk would fly the plane. When their marriage dissolved in 2002, Wicker took a break from wing walking.
She got back into wing walking in 2009 when she bought a new plane, Aurora and re-entered the Airshow Circuit.
Tragedy: Another photo on Facebook seems to indicate that Wicker had recently become engaged
Plane down: Witnesses wrote on Twitter that Wicker seemed to be sitting atop the plane when it crashed
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