Actor And Avid GA Pilot Treat Williams Mourned Following Motorcycle Accident

General aviation is mourning the loss of actor and pilot Treat Williams, 71, who died from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident yesterday (June 12) near his home in Vermont. According to local police, a car crossed over into the oncoming lane where Williams was riding, causing the collision. Williams suffered internal injuries and was airlifted to a hospital, but according to his agent of 20 years Barry McPherson, “They just couldn’t save him.”

Williams, who began taking flying lessons from his football coach in Connecticut in 1969, had logged more than 10,000 hours on a series aircraft he owned. The first, a clip-wing Piper Cub, cost $3,000, which he earned performing in the Broadway musical “Grease.” At the Sundance Film Festival in 2011, Williams told a reporter, “I got all the ratings. I went straight up from private, commercial, and then I got my helicopter [rating], commercial flight instructor.”

Williams was honored at the recent “Living Legends of Aviation” awards in California along with fellow actor/pilot John Travolta. The biography on the organization’s website notes his 40 years as a pilot and ownership over time of, among other aircraft, a Piper Cherokee 180, Piper Seneca, Piper Navajo Chieftain, and a World War II-vintage North American AT-6. He was also type-rated in Cessna Citation jets.

For all his accomplishments on stage, screen and in the air, Williams is also fondly remembered in the general aviation community for his warm personality and kindness. He wrote the children’s book “Air Show!” to reflect a child’s view of the wonder of flight. Aviation photographer Jeff Berlin, whose portrait of Williams accompanies this story and who knew him, wrote on Facebook, “Amazing talent but an even better human. So many great memories. Blue skies, my friend, blue skies. This one hurts.”