Update:
Updated at 7:45 p.m.: Revised with more information about crash and the company involved.
1 dead, 1 hurt in Cooke County plane crash during instructional flight, officials say
The fatal plane crash is the second associated with a Denton-based flight school since 2019.
A 27-year-old pilot died and her co-pilot was hospitalized after their plane crashed near Gainesville’s municipal airport Tuesday during an instructional flight, authorities said.
About 8:47 p.m., the single-engine plane with two people on board crashed near 926 County Road 404 in Cooke County, Sgt. Josue “Tony” De La Cerda, a Department of Public Safety spokesperson, said in a news release Wednesday afternoon. Gainesville is about 70 miles northeast of Dallas.
The pilot, Bailey Elaine Maldonado of Granbury, was pronounced dead. Her co-pilot, James Donald Watts, of Springfield, Ore., was taken by helicopter to Medical City Denton hospital with “serious injuries,” De La Cerda said.
The plane departed from Denton Enterprise Airport at 7:48 p.m. before crashing about an hour later, according to flightaware.com, a flight-tracking website.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash, spokespeople for the federal agencies confirmed Wednesday afternoon.
A preliminary investigation by the FAA attributed the crash to “unknown circumstances.”
Keith Holloway, an NTSB spokesperson, said Wednesday the investigation was in its early stages. He added that the aircraft would be recovered and transported to a secure facility for further evaluation.
Holloway said the crash happened during an instructional flight.
The aircraft, a Cessna 172R, is owned by Wings Over Texas Holdings LLC, according to an FAA registry. Messages to the company were not returned Wednesday afternoon.
The plane was used by US Aviation Academy, a flight school based at the Denton airport. In a phone call Wednesday afternoon, Scott Sykes, the academy’s chief development officer, declined to discuss the circumstances of the crash but confirmed the school’s ties.
“Our hearts and prayers are with the families involved in the crash along with the entire US Aviation team as we grieve together,” Mike Sykes, the academy’s CEO, said in a statement to Sherman-based television station KXII-TV.
Sykes did not return a phone call or an email seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.
The fatal crash is not the academy’s first. In July 2019, two people — a 25-year-old flight instructor and a 22-year-old student — were killed after their plane caught fire while landing at the Gainesville municipal airport.
In 2023, the National Transportation Safety Board investigated 103 reported cases of aviation accidents in Texas, primarily involving general aviation. Texas typically ranks among the top three states — with California and Florida — for accidents, a former director of the safety board’s investigations division told The Dallas Morning News earlier this year.
