Rhoda Bargas said of her late friend Kristen Morris, "She knew the risk she was taking with her passions, especially when it came to fl...
Rhoda Bargas said of her late friend Kristen Morris, "She knew the risk she was taking with her passions, especially when it came to flying." NEED TO KNOW: On August 31, a 35-year-old former Air Force captain died in a plane crash in Colorado.
In honor of another pilot who died last year, she was taking part in a flying challenge.
His friend said, "She was a beautiful example of what is good in the world."
There was an accident in the sky late last month that killed a 35-year-old former Air Force captain. The accident happened in Colorado during a memorial for a pilot who died the previous year.
On August 31, Kristen Morris was in a plane competing at the 2025 Kyle Scott Aerobatic Dust-up in Fort Morgan. That's when an Extra aircraft and a Cessna crashed, killing everyone on board. The International Aerobatic Club (IAC) said in a statement that both planes had two people on board.
"It breaks our hearts to say that IAC Competitor Kristen Morris died in the accident," the group said.
The Morgan County Sheriff's Office said that around 10:44 a.m. that morning, they got a call saying that the two planes had crashed at Fort Morgan Municipal Airport.
Based on what we know so far, the small Cessna was on its final approach to the airport when it was hit by the larger plane. Sources say that both planes fell and caught fire.
Two people in the Cessna were hurt, but not seriously, and were taken to the hospital and released right away. Someone from the other plane, later named David Shangraw by the IAC, was taken to a nearby hospital.
The group said, "IAC Competitor David Shangraw is in the hospital but is expected to get better."
The last passenger, who was eventually named as Morris by police, was declared dead at the scene. At the time of the accident, it's not clear who was flying both planes. People has been told by the National Transportation Safety Board that a Cessna 172 and an Extra EA 300 plane crashed in the air as they were reaching the airport. A preliminary report on the crash is due within 30 days. It might take you a year or two to finish the final report.
People asked the Morgan County Sheriff's Office and the Morgan County Coroner's Office for more information, but they did not reply. Morris was a first officer at SkyWest Airlines and a veteran C-130J pilot in the U.S. Air Force, according to her LinkedIn page and description for the U.S. Department of Defense Warrior Games. The Warrior Games are held every year and have adaptive sports events for wounded, sick, and injured players. CBS News said that Shangraw, the 39-year-old guy on Morris' plane, is a flying instructor and qualified pilot. There is no control tower at this airport, so like at many others, pilots must keep track of where other planes are and talk to each other on a set radio channel, according to the news source.
The event they were going to was a yearly acrobatic competition that used to be called the High Plains Hotpoxia. Officials changed the name to honor Kyle Scott, a local pilot who died in a plane crash on September 5, 2024, while crop dusting a field near Brush, Colorado. Scott was 52 years old. Now, the flying community is sad about the death of another skilled pilot. Friends told KMGH that Morris, who lived in Denver, was a liked former Air Force captain. Rhoda Bargas, one of her friends, told the news source, "She knew the risk she was taking with the things she loved, especially flying."
KUSA said the experienced pilot was also a skilled Air Force Wounded Warriors athlete and swim coach.
"I think she's the reason we got a lot more medals than we thought we would," Michael Nalley, captain of the 2025 Warrior Games, told the news source. "She had the power to make good energy grow." It never hurts to be nice to people and check in on them, and I think she was great at that. From Morris' Warrior Games page, we can see that she had surgery to fix both of her hips. In an interview with a military group, Morris said that her husband Jason had helped her get better.
"My husband had helped me with most of the work, and I had reached that point," Morris said in 2019. "That way I could help the people I saw who weren't quite there."
Once she is gone, her family and friends remember how kind she was and how much she loved being in the air.
"Right now, all we can do is follow her lead," her friend Melanie Presuto told KUSA in a tearful interview. "She was so lovely that it made me want to be like her."