'She looked very scared': Witnesses describe stunt performer's fiery crash at air show

Jane Wicker (left) and pilot Charlie Schwenker perform their act high above the Vectren Air Show on Saturday afternoon shortly before their fatal crash.

 

"She looked very scared," Thanh Tran, of Fairfield, said of veteran stuntwoman Jane Wicker just as her plane nosedived. "Then the airplane crashed on the ground. After that, it was terrible, man ... very terrible."

Some spectators said they knew something was wrong because the plane piloted by Charlie Schwenker was flying low and slow.

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hanh V. Tran/AP The stunt plane tips over and loses control just before crashing. The accident killed the pilot and the wing walker instantly, authorities said.

 

"As a pilot, you accept the fact that accidents do happen — it's an accepted risk we take," John King, president of the Flying Circus Airshow, which employed Wicker said Sunday.

The air show in southwestern Ohio reopened Sunday with a moment of silence as they remembered the fearless life both Wicker and Schwenker tragically left behind.

Thanh V. Tran/AP Flames erupt from her stunt plane after it crashed during her wing walker performance at the Vectren Air Show.

 

"They were both dedicated to flying and the act. They were true, ultimate professionals," King said. "I don't know of anyone who could have done any better than what they were doing."

Wicker, performing at the Dayton show for the first time, had been sitting atop the 450 HP Stearman when the dramatic accident unfolded.

Thanh V. Tran/AP A fireball engulfs the wreck.

 

On a video capturing the crash, an announcer narrates as the plane glides through the air.

"Keep an eye on Jane. Keep an eye on Charlie. Watch this! Jane Wicker, sitting on top of the world," the announcer said, right before the plane makes a quick turn with Wicker sitting on the wing.

Thanh V. Tran/AP Black smoke pours from the stunt plane after it plummeted to the ground.

 

With its dramatic tilt the plane nosedived into the ground, erupting into flames as spectators screamed.

Ian Hoyt, an aviation photographer and licensed pilot from Findlay, was at the show with his girlfriend. He told The Associated Press he was taking photos as the plane passed by and had just raised his camera to take another shot.

Thanh V. Tran/AP A dust cloud hovers over the fallen plane that claimed both lives.

 

"Then I realized they were too low and too slow. And before I knew it, they hit the ground," he said.

wcpo.com Firefighters rush to the crushed stunt plane and douse the flames after the horrifying crash at the Vectren Air Show.

 

He couldn't tell exactly what happened, but it appeared that the plane stalled and didn't have enough air speed, he said. He credited the pilot for steering clear of spectators and potentially saving lives.

"Had he drifted more, I don't know what would have happened," Hoyt said. He said he had been excited to see the show because he'd never seen Wicker in action.

via Facebook An onlooker says Jane Wicker looked extremely frightened as the plane began spiraling out of control.

 

The decision to resume the show a day after the crash was an emotional one supported by Wicker's ex-husband, said air show general manager Brenda Kerfoot.

"He said, 'This is what Jane and Charlie would have wanted,'" Kerfoot said. "'They want you to have a safe show and go out there and do what you do best.'"

Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post via Getty Images FLASHBACK: Wicker stands tall atop the biplane, piloted by Wicker's ex-husband Kirk Wicker, as it climbs vertically during the Leesburg Executive Airport's 2010 Airshow.

 

Wicker, 44, who lived in Bristow, Va., was a mother of two boys and engaged to be married, Kerfoot said. Schwenker, 64, of Oakton, Va., was married.

The cause of the crash is unclear and the investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board will likely take months. Investigators picked through the debris of the crash site Saturday.

Steve Mehaffie via YouTube

The Vectren Dayton Air Show in Ohio usually draws some 70,000 people. The rest of Saturday's events were canceled after a fatal crash that killed wing walker Jane Wicker and the stunt plane's pilot.

Federal records show that biplane was registered to Wicker, who lived in Loudon, Va. A man who answered the phone at a number listed for Wicker on her website said he had no comment and hung up.
Wicker's website says she responded to a classified ad from the Flying Circus Airshow in Bealeton, Va., in 1990, for a wing-walking position, thinking it would be fun. She was a contract employee who worked as a Federal Aviation Administration budget analyst, the FAA said.

Mike Lynaugh  Wing walker Jane Wicker was sitting on the wing of the plane when it crashed on Saturday afternoon.

 

She told WDTN-TV in an interview this week that her signature move was hanging underneath the plane's wing by her feet and sitting on the bottom of the airplane while it's upside-down.

"I'm never nervous or scared because I know if I do everything as I usually do, everything's going to be just fine," she told the station.

 

via Facebook Pilot Charlie Schwenker was also killed in the crash.

In one post on Wicker's site, the stuntwoman explains what she loved most about her job.

"There is nothing that feels more exhilarating or freer to me than the wind and sky rushing by me as the earth rolls around my head," the post says.

"I'm alive up there. To soar like a bird and touch the sky puts me in a place where I feel I totally belong. It's the only thing I've done that I've never questioned, never hesitated about and always felt was my destiny."

Steve Mehaffie via YouTube Wing walker Jane Wicker's signature move involved sitting on the wing of a plane. She and the pilot of a 450 HP Stearman aircraft were killed Saturday in a fiery crash at the Vectren Dayton Air Show in Ohio.

 

She also answered a question she said she got frequently: What about the risk?

Steve Mehaffie via YouTube Spectator video shows performer Jane Wicker on the wing of a 450 HP Stearman plane moments before the aircraft went down at the Vectren Dayton Air Show in Ohio.

 

"I feel safer on the wing of my airplane than I do driving to the airport," she wrote. "Why? Because I'm in control of those risks and not at the mercy of those other drivers."

Wicker wrote on her website that she had never had any close calls.

DigiTubeTM via YouTube Wicker stretches out her arm as the plane begins to tilt and bear towards the ground.

 

"What you see us do out there is after an enormous amount of practice and fine tuning, not to mention the airplane goes through microscopic care. It is a managed risk and that is what keeps us alive," she wrote.

A post on Jane Wicker Airshows' Facebook page announced the deaths of Wicker and Schwenker and asked for prayers for their families.

Steve Mehaffie via YouTube Spectators screamed as a 450 HP Stearman plane flying in the Vectren Dayton Air Show in Ohio plummeted to the ground and exploded into flames. Wing walker Jane Wicker and the plane's pilot were killed.

 

A message left at a phone listing for Charles Schwenker in Oakton, Va., wasn't immediately returned.
A program for the air show touted Wicker as a performer of "heart-stopping" feats who did moves that "no other wing walker is brave enough to try.

Ty Greenlees/Dayton Daily News via AP The shattered craft's tail and fuselage are engulfed in flames.

 

"Wing riding is not for this damsel; her wing walking style is the real thing," the program said. "With no safety line and no parachute, Jane amazes the crowd by climbing, walking, and hanging all over her beautiful ... aircraft.

"Spectators are sure to gasp as this daredevil demonstrates in true form the unbelievable art of wing walking," it says.

whiotv.com Onlooker reacts as smoke rises in the background after the accident, which occurred around 12:45 p.m. on Saturday.

 

In 2011, wing walker Todd Green fell 200 feet to his death at an air show in Michigan while performing a stunt in which he grabbed the skid of a helicopter.

In 2007, veteran stunt pilot Jim LeRoy was killed at the Dayton show when his biplane slammed into the runway while performing loop-to-loops and caught fire.

Jane Wicker Airshows via Facebook The deaths of Jane Wicker and Charlie Schwenker were announced Saturday night on the Jane Wicker Airshows Facebook page.

 

Still, the president of the Flying Circus Airshow said, in the four decades since Flying Circus started, many kids have been so inspired watching the show that they later became military and commercial pilots.

"Our show takes them back to the barnstorming era of air shows," he said. "It's amazing how many people have taken up aviation careers because of their first exposure to the Flying Circus."
Organizers were presenting a trimmed-down show and expected smaller crowds at Dayton after the Air Force Thunderbirds and other military participants pulled out this year because of federal budget cuts.

The air show, one of the country's oldest, usually draws around 70,000 people and has a $3.2 million impact on the local economy. Without military aircraft and support, the show expected attendance to be off 30 percent or more.