The MayDay STOL competition in Wayne, Nebraska, came to an abrupt and tragic halt on Friday evening with the loss of pilot Tom Dafoe, who was piloting a 1946 Cessna 140.
Dafoe was flying in the fourth heat of a traditional STOL pickup match when the Cessna entered a stall-spin around 300 feet agl, from straight-and-level flight with airspeed low, according to eyewitnesses on the scene at Wayne Municipal-Stan Morris Field. The subsequent impact took Dafoe’s life.
