Nick Tramontano and his wife Sandy at the Fantasy of Flight Museum in Polk City. Florida, in 2013. Photo courtesy of Capt. Ken Kahn

According to the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, the second person on board the airplane that crashed near Maricopa Friday was Nicholas Tramontano, 72, of Brookfield, Connecticut.

Tramontano and pilot Jeffrey Pino died in the crash. Tramontano had also been a pilot.

According to friend Capt. Ken Kahn, “He was an airplane man his entire adult life. His airline career started at New York Airways before Seaboard, Flying Tigers, and FedEx. He was airline pilot for approximately thirty-three years.”

Tramontano owned a World War II-era Beechcraft Model 18 that he used in 2012 to bring some distraction to school children after a tragedy. Two weeks after a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, Tramontano flew his plane to Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford, Connecticut, during a fieldtrip for the school’s students and let them tour the vintage craft.

Tramontano leaves behind his wife, three children, a stepson and several grandchildren. He had a brother in Tucson and a sister in Phoenix.

The cause of Friday’s crash is still under investigation. Several 911 calls came into PCSO dispatch just before noon when Pino’s P-51D Mustang went down and burst into flames.

Tramontano had once had his own aviation company in Connecticut, though PCSO spokesman Mark Clark said his connection with Pino is unknown.

The plane crashed near the junction of Peters and Nall Road and Breeze Way, just west of Ralston Road

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