A student pilot who died after her small plane grazed a tractor-trailer and slid across a snowy field had flown solo before, an airport official said Sunday.
Amanda Lee Psket, 20, of the Milwaukee area, died Saturday night in a hospital. The 1971 Piper Cherokee she was flying crashed as she tried to land at Sylvania Airport near an Interstate Highway 94 interchange in Racine County.
“We felt she was very competent, very energetic,” said Robert Demski, owner of the airport, which leased the plane for training. “She loved flying. It has been a shock to all of us.”
Psket had been taking flying lessons for month or two, Demski said. He said she had flown alone out of the airport before, but he did not know how many times.
The plane’s wheels made contact with the trailer and hit the ground at about 3:44 p.m. Saturday, said Racine County Sheriff’s Lt. George Gillett. It was unclear why the plane was flying too low as it approached the airport, he said.
Typically, a student flier must log between 10 and 20 hours with an instructor before going out on a solo flight, Demski said. Demski did not know how many hours Psket had logged.
