Ag Pilots Killed in Crashes Now Remembered with Memorial

(Photo credit: National Agricultural Aviation Museum)

Mississippi has had memorials for fallen law enforcement officers and firefighters for years.  Last month, the state dedicated a new monument for emergency medical personnel who’ve died in the line of duty.  And now, there’s a memorial for the pilots who gave their lives while helping farmers grow the food we need..

“Agricultural aviation is over a hundred years old”

And Graham Lavender, the chairman of the National Agricultural Aviation Hall of Fame Committee, says, especially in the early days of crop-dusting, many pilots were killed in crashes…

“There was no memorial that cemented these pilots’ legacy and displayed their sacrifice doing what they did.   And so we decided that it was past time to have some type of monument…”

And tomorrow, the Last Pass Memorial Walkway is being dedicated at the Mississippi Ag and Forestry Museum in Jackson, with about 370 names inscribed on bricks including 24 pilots from Mississippi…

“Our oldest incident goes back to about 1972 and the latest (fatal crash) is this year…”

But Lavender says there were many other agricultural aviation crashes as far back as 1921 and they’re trying to gather more information about those pilots so their names can be included on the memorial.