November 23rd 2023.
Elzie Monroe McDonald was just days away from his 88th birthday when tragedy struck. On Tuesday evening, his single-engine Mooney M20 crashed in the parking lot of a strip mall in Plano, Texas. The Texas Department of Public Safety reported that McDonald was trying a go-around, which is an aborted landing attempt in which the plane as it approaches land, then flies back up.
The crash happened outside the Nail Addiction salon, and a video showed how close it came to striking one of the employees. The salon owner told NBC 5 that while the employee was safe, he and his wife were still “very shocked from the incident.”
The plane crashed near a Mama’s Daughters’ Diner, and the owner Nancy Procaccini said she felt like she had been “almost in a wreck” after the loud boom. Witnesses also heard the right wing dip before the aircraft crashed.
No one else was aboard the plane, which was registered to McDonald. The crash happened less than a mile away from Air-Park Dallas Airport, which does not have an air traffic control tower.
McDonald, of Aguila, Arizona, had recently been honored with the FAA Master Pilot Award, which is given to those who have flown safely for 50 or more years. This tragedy came just weeks after a pilot flying a single-engine Cessna Skyhawk 172M plane crashed into the Florida Everglades on Halloween. Thankfully, the pilot was found with a wounded leg and rescued.
The loss of Elzie Monroe McDonald is immense and heartbreaking. Our thoughts are with his family and friends, and we wish them strength as they mourn.
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