Martin Tibbitts Went Down Near Sheboygan County Memorial Airport In Wisconsin

Martin J. Tibbitts, one of the co-founders of the World Heritage Air Museum, was fatally injured Friday when the de Havilland DH 112 he was flying went down shortly after takeoff from Sheboygan County Memorial Airport in Wisconsin.

The Detroit Free Press reports that the 50-year-old Tibbitts, from Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, was flying to Oshkosh to take part in AirVenture with the airplane. He impacted a barn when the plane went down, and a post-impact fire ensued, according to authorities.

The accident flight was to have been a formation flight with two other military aircraft. The Sheboygan Airport was hosting a vintage aircraft formation flying clinic ahead of AirVenture. Tibbitts departed first, with the other two aircraft right behind him, according to the report. He went down just seconds after the departure.

Tibbitts owned the Venom he was flying. It was one of only a handful of airworthy examples still flying, according to the museum website.

The Venom first flew in 1949 and was designed as a single-seat fighter-bomber and two-place night fighter.

(Image from file. Not accident airplane)

FMI: Original report