Jeff Pino, 61, the former president of helicopter maker Sikorsky and an avid general aviation pilot, was killed on Friday in the crash of his P-51D “Big Beautiful Doll” in Maricopa, Arizona, about 35 miles south of Phoenix. Also killed in the crash was Nicholas Tramontano, 72, a longtime friend of Pino’s.
A former Army helicopter pilot who became president at Sikorsky in 2006 after a career that included 17 years at Bell Helicopter, Pino retired in 2012. He purchased the P-51 in early 2014, and in October of that year made a gear up landing after a mechanical problem with the airplane’s left main gear.
Most recently Pino had served as vice chairman for XTI Aircraft, a Denver company that is developing a VTOL craft called the TriFan 600. The company said it will move ahead with the project in spite of “this shocking loss.”
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash.
