Fly-In Founder Dies After Saving Brother From Wreck

Jim Londo, 60, of Everett, Wash., whose family helped found the Arlington Fly-In, died recently after a dramatic final flight. Londo and his nephew were passengers in a Cessna 185 flown by Londo’s brother Bob on Aug. 21, when they went down in mountains 10 miles south of Toutle, Wash. The initial accident report cites weather of “1SM BKN001 OVC008.” The Cessna caught fire on impact. Jim Londo, who was badly hurt and was himself burned over more than 60 percent of his body, dragged his unconscious brother from the burning wreck. They called for help with a cellphone, but rescue crews were unable to find the crash site. Jim Londo and his 16-year-old nephew, whose arm was broken, waited all night for help to arrive, as Bob, 47, who suffered first-degree burns to his face and legs, walked for hours through dense woods, leaving a trail of wreckage to find the way back. Rescuers arrived on the scene in the morning, but were unable to save Jim, who was lost to his injuries. In the mid-1990s, Londo had built one of the first GlaStar kitplanes for therapy as he recovered from a kick in the head from a horse. He was well-known at Arlington and in the Northwest aviation community. “If you met Jim and talked to him, you couldn’t believe he was 60 years old. He had the enthusiasm of a teenager most of the time,” his friend Jim Scott told the Everett Daily Herald. “That was his first love — aviation and airplanes.”