A Horsham Air Force Commander Was Injured, And Daughter Killed, In Private Plane Crash

Editor's Note: This story has been updated as of 10:45 a.m. with additional information provided by the 111th Attack Wing.

HORSHAM, PA — A U.S. Air Force pilot who is based in Horsham is reportedly fighting for his life after his plane went down in South Carolina last week, a crash that is said to have taken the life of his 24-year-old daughter.

Colonel Deane Thomey, commander of the 111th Attack Wing and Biddle Air National Guard Base in Horsham, had been flying a private plane from Virginia to Florida when his plane experienced engine problems, subsequently causing it to crash into the woods.

Thomey is currently being treated in the intensive care unit of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, according to the 111th Attack Wing, which said Thomey was piloting a privately-owned Piper PA-28R-300 airplane at the time of the incident.

"Please keep the Thomey family in your thoughts and prayers," Col. Rebecca Gray, 111th Attack Wing Vice Commander, said in a statement. "Together we will support one another, Col. Thomey's wife and his daughters through this difficult time."

The crash claimed the life of Thomey's daughter, Madeline.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.

Thomey, an Arkansas native, took command at the 111th Attack Wing this past April after he spent time as the director of the Air National Guard Director's Action Group at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, according to the 111th.

He attended pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, graduating in November 1996.