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The Tragic Cost of Flying for the Camera

Death of Jenny Blalock provides safety lessons hidden in a preventable accident.

1989 Beechcraft F33A Debonair
Beechcraft F33A Debonair [Credit: FLYING Archives]
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

I may be the only pilot on the planet who wasn’t familiar with the saga of Jenny Blalock, known on social media as “TNFlygirl,” that so tragically ended with her 2023 death in an aircraft crash. And it seems odd since I spent a good deal of time in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she based her airplanes and trained.

I often took my Cessna 180 from Cincinnati Lunken (KLUK) to fly required FAA flight checks with Stan Brock and others in the Remote Area Medical DC-3. But time “accelerates,” so it may have been before all this happened.

Martha Lunken

Martha Lunken is a lifelong pilot, former FAA inspector and defrocked pilot examiner. She flies a Cessna 180 and anything with a tailwheel, from Cubs to DC-3s.

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