Odd Jorgenson Was Going Home

Andrea Jorgensen said her husband, Odd, never took chances when flying. "He didn't take risks in weather and I hope he didn't on this trip," she told the Wichita Eagle. But whether he did or not, Odd was killed Sunday when the aircraft he built with his own two hands went down in a field in Kansas.

Both Andrea and Odd had flown to Oregon in their Velocity. There, Andrea left her husband of 42-years and took a commercial flight home to Malabar (FL).

Kansas state investigators say Jorgensen had stopped overnight in Dodge City (KS). His aircraft apparently exploded in-flight about 70 miles southeast in Kiowa County.

"It was a beautiful plane, a very dependable plane up until now," Andrea Jorgensen said of the Velocity in an interview with the Wichita Eagle. Odd spent three years building the aircraft, which first flew in 2000, she told the paper.

"He's an adventurer," she said of her husband. "Flying was maybe not what I would have most liked for him to do, but I would never keep him away from something he loved to do."

FAA Preliminary Accident Report

IDENTIFICATION
 Regis#: 190J    Make/Model: EXP    Description: VELOCITY EXP
 Date: 08/07/2004   Time: 1500

 Event Type: Accident  Highest Injury: Fatal   Mid Air: N  Missing: N
 Damage: Destroyed

LOCATION
 City: BELVIDERE          State: KS  Country: US

DESCRIPTION
 ACFT REPORTED TO HAVE EXPLODED IN FLIGHT UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, ONE
 PERSON ON BOARD WAS FATALLY INJURED AND THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED, 10 SOUTH OF
 BELVIDERE, KS

INJURY DATA   Total Fatal:  1
         # Crew:  1   Fat:  1   Ser:  0   Min:  0   Unk: 
         # Pass:   0   Fat:  0   Ser:  0   Min:  0   Unk: 
         # Grnd:        Fat:  0   Ser:  0   Min:  0   Unk: 

WEATHER: METAR KPTT 071510Z AUTO 16007KT 10SM OVC034 18/14 A3005           
                                          
OTHER DATA
 Activity: Unknown   Phase: Unknown   Operation: General Aviation

 Departed: DODGE CITY, KS       Dep Date: 08/07/2004  Dep. Time:  
 Destination: MELBORNE, FL       Flt Plan: NONE     Wx Briefing: Y
 Last Radio Cont: NONE
 Last Clearance: NONE

 FAA FSDO: WICHITA, KS (CE07)          Entry date: 08/09/2004

FMI: www.ntsb.gov