A married couple has been identified as two of the people killed when a single-engine plane crashed near the Wright Brothers National Memorial’s First Flight Airport over the weekend.
Lt. Col Jason Campbell, 43, and his wife, Kate McAllister Neely, 39, were among five people who perished when the doomed aircraft – a Cirrus SR22 – crashed on Saturday night in the North Carolina woods.
Campbell, a native of Texas, had been assigned to the US Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, located at Fort Liberty in North Carolina, Stars and Stripes report.
He served as the program manager for Civil Affairs Military Government Specialist Program at the base, advising and assisting commanders and civilians in providing governance expertise.
Campbell previously had about 19 years of active-duty service, deploying to Afghanistan in 2006 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Lt. Col Jason Campbell, 43, and his wife, Kate McAllister Neely, 39, were among five people who were killed when a single-engine plane crashed in North Carolina over the weekend
The single-engine Cirrus crashed in the woods near the Wright Brothers National Memorial’s First Flight Airport on Saturday
He moved up in the ranks to become a Commander of Special Forces, according to Everything Lubbock.
For his efforts, Campbell received a Bronze Star, a National Defense Service Medal, an Army Commendation Medal, two Merit Service Medals and three Army Achievement Medals.
Campbell’s devastated family also said he was a graduate of Trinity Christian and a high ranking officer in the military, as per a local news report. A photo on his social media showed Campbell smiling in the cockpit of an airplane.
Campbell’s mother has shared her grief on Facebook.
‘I want to publicly thank my Lord and Savior for the wonderful years He allowed me to raise my beautiful son,’ Mary Solesbee wrote on Monday.
‘To my beautiful daughter in law, you were an amazing wife, mother and daughter.
‘We are devastated with this loss,’ she said of her and her husband, Gary.
Also killed in the crash on Saturday night were Shashwat Ajit Adhikari, 31, of Silver Spring, Maryland; Matthew Arthur Fassnacht, 44, of Marietta, Georgia; and an unidentified six-year-old child.
Campbell’s mother expressed her grief on social media Monday, describing her son as ‘beautiful’ and Neely as ‘an amazing wife, mother and daughter’
Witnesses reported that the plane was attempting to land at the airport when it caught on fire, causing the airplane to burn and come tumbling down.
The airport does not have a tower, meaning that pilots do not communicate with a traffic control tower when they arrive or depart.
Some people were still inside the park as the plane crashed down, according to 13 News Now.
‘At the beginning, I thought he was really high, and all of a sudden, he just went down a little too quick,’ Nadia Popruzhenko said.
‘This one went down so quick that I thought it was too low.’
The Kill Devil Hills Fire Department and other local fire departments responded to the scene, according to the National Parks Service (NPS) release.
Witnesses reported that the plane was attempting to land at the airport when it caught on fire, causing the airplane to burn and come tumbling down
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Ryan Enders said it is too early to speculate on the cause of the crash.
‘We don’t want to speculate,’ he said, according to the Coastland Times. ‘We are just here to collect the factual information.
‘Once we have all the evidence that we can gather, we’ll go back to our desks, put it all together and come up with probable cause.’
A final report may take up to one year to complete.
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