Plane Crash Took Lives of Loved Island Pilot and Angel Flight NE Co-Pilot

is an organization of volunteer pilots that arranges free flights for Islanders requiring access to medical care off-island. Angel Flight NE was founded in 1996 and since then has flown 5,400 missions to the Island. This past Sunday, a plane carrying one of the Island’s most respected flight instructors, as well as one of Angel Flight’s co-pilots, went down after taking off from the Island around 9:30 am.

On board were Oulton Hues, 73, of Edgartown and Norwood, and Robert Walker, 68, of East Falmouth. Flying in Walker’s Piper Comanche, Walker was training with Hues for another level of pilot certification.

A statement released by Larry Camerlin, President of Angel Flight NE said,  “The entire Angel Flight NE team sends our thoughts and prayers to Bob’s wife, Molly, his family and friends.  Bob flew missions for Angel Flight NE until October 2007. His wife, Molly, has flown nearly 90 Angel Flight NE missions while Bob served as co-pilot in their Piper Comanche, which was registered with and certified by the FAA. Certification of an aircraft by the FAA ensures that aviation aircraft meet the highest safety standards. We will continue to keep Bob’s family in our prayers during this difficult time.”

Martha’s Vineyard Airport manager Sean Flynn said that Angel Flight NE, “really is a lifeline for people here who are suffering from illness and need access to care.”

Of Walker, Flynn said, “Anyone that gives the kind of time those pilots do to Angel Flight, especially people who aren’t from here, are great people. They really add to the community and it really is a terrible loss for whole community.”

Hues, who divided his time between Edgartown and Norwood, will be greatly missed by the whole aviation community on the Island. “Oulton was much more than a pilot to the Island,” said Flynn. “Sometimes around airports, conversation is really confined to aviation, but Oulton could have a conversation that was deeper. He was one of those people that meet you on another level. He was so much more than just another pilot or instructor, he was great human.”

According to reports, shortly after 10 am on Sunday, whoever was flying the plane reported smoke in the cabin. However, they later reported that the smoke had cleared and that the flight was going to continue as scheduled. Soon after all contact between the crew of the plane and air traffic controllers was lost.

The search began around 10:30 and involved Coast Guard, state and local police and fire and natural resources officials. It lasted for four hours before the bodies of Hues and Walker were found near Saint's Landing in Brewster.

As to the cause of the accident, there is still much work to be done as the wreckage of the plane is still being recovered. “Those of us involved in aviation are impatient by nature,” said Flynn, “but we also understand that to get an answer to how something like this happened takes a long time and sometimes it can’t be figured out. Hopefully, the FAA will able to get together all the components that they need. I know we all want to know the answer. Oulton was such a great pilot that we all want to know what went wrong. If anyone could manage an emergency, Oulton could have managed it.”