Bucks Co. Pilot Killed In Plane Crash Was 'First-Class Gentleman'

DOYLESTOWN, PA — Friends and family members are mourning the loss of a Bucks County man who was killed in a plane crash in Buckingham Township on Tuesday morning.

Martin Sailer Jr., 79, of Upper Black Eddy, was the pilot and sole occupant of a small plane that crashed in a wooded area near Cold Spring Creamery Road and Charter Club Drive around 10:30 a.m. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Security Board are working to determine the cause of the crash, an investigation that could take anywhere from 12 to 18 months, according to FAA officials.

Known to friends and loved ones as "Marty," Sailer was flying in a red-and-white single-engine Vans RV-6 aircraft that he built for himself years ago.

Bob Ferguson, president and flight coordinator of Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 78, said Sailer carried a wealth of knowledge about planes and aircrafts.

"The knowledge that he had on aviation was mind-boggling," said Ferguson, who last spoke with Sailer and his wife several months ago at the EAA annual chapter dinner at Giuseppe's Pizza of Warminster.

At the annual air show at Doylestown Airport, Sailer would display his homemade RV-6A aircraft, Ferguson said. He also volunteered with the chapter's Young Eagles Flights program, helping to train the next generation of flyers to navigate the skies.

"He was a hell of a pilot, a first-class gentleman," recalled Lino Flego, a pilot and fellow EAA Chapter 78 member. "If you needed anything, he was right there for you."

Todd Sailer described his father as a friendly, outgoing and loving person who took countless people with him on plane rides. From the time his father was a teenager, he always wanted to fly planes, he said. Growing up in Richboro, his father witnessed a plane landing, and from that point on he made it his goal to navigate the skies.

"A lot of people told me they chose their career path because of him," Sailer said. "He was always willing to mentor anyone."

In 1961, Sailer enlisted in the Navy, where he flew a submarine hunting aircraft. He then became a commercial pilot for Trans World Airlines, where he worked until his retirement.

Todd believes that in his father's final moments in the air, he went off course to avoid houses in a final act of thinking of others.

"He told me one time, 'In an emergency, you look for anywhere you can put it down to avoid casualties on the ground,'" Sailer said. "It's what he would have done, no doubt about it."

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