Body of co-pilot, 20, killed in Oshkosh air show crash is recovered after remains of Super Bowl cham

Publish date: 2024-05-08

THE body of a co-pilot killed in one of two horrific Oshkosh airshow crashes at the weekend has been recovered from a Wisconsin lake.

A dive crew found the body of Zach Colliemoreno, 20, days after the remains of a former Super Bowl champ's daughter were recovered from Lake Winnebago.

Devyn Reiley, the 30-year-old daughter of two-time Super Bowl-winning offensive lineman Bruce Collie, was one of four people killed in two separate crashes during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023.

She had been piloting a vintage aircraft when it suddenly plummeted about 3,900 feet into Lake Winnebago at about 9am on Saturday.

Tragically, several hours later, at 12.24pm that same day, there was a mid-air accident involving two aircraft.

A Rotorway 162F helicopter and an ELA Eclipse 10 gyrocopter collided, killing two people and injuring a further two.

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The fatal crash which killed Reiley and Colliemoreno occurred just five minutes after takeoff, said the Experimental Aircraft Association.

Eyewitnesses told reporters they had seen the plane spiraling uncontrollably before plunging into the water.

Brayden Hiebing told local NBC affiliate WGBA: “I thought they were doing a trick at first.

“I heard the plane start coming out of the sky, and it started like spinning and all of a sudden it just made a big splash."

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Reiley, of Guadalupe, Texas, and Colliemoreno, whose hometown was not immediately available, were the only two occupants of the plane.

Cops, Coast Guard officials, and fire crews scrambled to the scene in Oshkosh after receiving reports of the crash.

Lieutenant Darin Rice, of the Winnebago County Sheriff's office, said that recovering the remains and the plane had been difficult for divers.

"LOVE OF AVIATION"

Dive experts and other responders faced poor visibility at the crash site.

Pieces of the T-6 Texan, a World War II-era plane, were later found in about 15 to 20 feet of water, Rice said, adding: “The physical location of the crash and the positioning of the plane in the water has made it difficult."

Colliemoreno was a friend of the Collie family, and Reiley co-owned a New Braunfels-based flight school with her husband Hunter, reported the San Antonio Express News.

“All you wanted was to make the wasp [Women's Airforce Service Pilots] proud. You earned your ‘Fifi’ [biplane] wings,” Hunter Reiley wrote in a Facebook tribute to his wife.

Her devastated father also paid tribute: “Her love of aviation was always so evident from a young age. She was enchanted with it all."

According to a Facebook post from Texas Warbird Museum, she became a certified private pilot in 2017 and was working toward becoming a certified commercial pilot.

She had a “passion of representing the history of female aviators by flying these historical aircraft,” the post added.

AIR FORCE HOPES

Reiley had been accepted into the Air Force reserves and aimed to fly refuelers, reported the Express.

The EAA said the fatal mid-air collision involving two aircraft later that day happened at the south end of Wittman Regional Airport.

Those killed were identified as the pilot, Mark Peterson, 69, of Foley in Alabama, and passenger Thomas Volz, 72, of Amelia, Ohio.

A further two people injured in that crash remain in a stable condition in hospital.

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The Rotorway 162F helicopter and ELA 10 Eclipse gyrocopter belonged to event attendees and were not involved in the airshow, said the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating both crashes.

The aviation show normally attracts about 10,000 planes and more than 600,000 attendees.

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