Plane Mishap Proves Fatal for N.C. Member

Capt. Steve Merritt, a member of the North Carolina Wing’s Franklin County Composite Squadron, died Sunday of injuries suffered the previous day after the private single-engine Cessna 150C he was flying crashed in a field in Franklin County shortly after takeoff.

According to news reports, Merritt was retrieving the Cessna, which its teenage pilot had landed in the field the day before after experiencing problems, to return it to Louisburg’s Triangle North Executive Airport. He was the airport’s manager as well as a flight instructor.

Merritt joined the North Carolina Wing in 2004 and was considered an architect of the wing’s glider program, one of Civil Air Patrol’s most active. He held ratings as a check pilot examiner, a mission pilot and a glider instructor pilot.