Missing Writer Found Dead After Auto Accident

It's sad news when the aviation world loses one of its own... even sadder to us here at ANN when it's one of our colleagues.

Michael Dornheim was an award-winning journalist at Aviation Week for the past quarter-century. A general aviation pilot himself... the 51-year old Dornheim was well-known in the small community of aviation reporters.

In 1994, he won the Aviation/Space Writers Association Award of Excellence for stories on the space shuttle. He was also a three-time winner of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Aerospace Journalist of the Year Award.

"Mike had a unique combination of engineering education and experience, aerospace industry knowledge, inquisitiveness and dogged perseverance," said Jim Asker, Aviation Week magazine's managing editor. "On top of that, he could communicate clearly in words and pictures."

On the night of June 3, Mike was on his way home after dinner with some friends at a restaurant in the Santa Monica Mountains near Calabasas, CA. He had told them he was heading home "the back way."

Sadly, Mike wasn't seen again... until Monday, when a Los Angeles County law enforcement helicopter flying in the area spotted Mike's car upside down off Piuma Road. The car had run off the road and plunged into a 350-foot deep canyon.

Mike lost his life in that accident. And we lost a colleague who, by all accounts... was a competent and well-liked reporter. We have no word at this point on plans for a memorial. 

FMI: www.aviationweek.com