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Plane crash victim a legend among pilots

Published October 23rd, 2009 | 0 Comments

ELIZABETHTON — News of Thursday’s crash of a single-engine Cessna 206 has reverberated all over the world. That is because one of the two men killed in the crash was a legend among missionary aviators who fly in and out of some of the most remote airstrips in some of most difficult terrain in the world.

Ron Royce, 70, was described as an exceptional pilot by Joe Hopkins, founder of Mission Safety International. MSI is an agency established to promote safety in the mission fields and in missionary aviation, but the organization is not participating in the federal investigation of Thursday’s accident.

“He was the tops,” Hopkins said of Royce. “I knew him for 40 years.” He said Royce served as chief flight trainer for Moody Bible Institute’s missionary aviation school during the years it was located in Elizabethton. Stories about Royce are frequently told on missionary landing strips all over the globe.

Read the full story on the Johnson City Press Web site.

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