Former IMSA and IndyCar racer Bill Whittington was killed Friday when an airplane he was piloting crashed in the Arizona desert, according to multiple reports. Whittington is the only three brothers along with brothers Don and Dale to qualify for the same Indianapolis 500. He was 71 years old.
Bill and Don won the Le Mans 24 Hours together with Klaus Ludwig in 1979. Soon after, Bill and Don were convicted of drug smuggling and other charges and were serving time in prison.
According to Racer magazine, a friend and convicted smuggler, Randy Lanier, said Whittington was taking away a friend with terminal cancer. While both Don and Bill were racing drivers P-51 Mustangs, it was a 1981 conventional swearingin Merlin that crashed Bill, an 11-passenger twin-engine aircraft registered with Global Air in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Bill Whittington teamed up with Randy Lanier for the SunBank 24-hour race at Daytona International Speedway in 1984.
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FlightWatch shows the flight pattern of the aircraft taking off from Scottsdale and heading northeast near Winslow when it crashes north of Interstate 40 on a desert road in Navajo County, Arizona. The Navajo Sheriff’s Office helped put out a fire in the rubble and found two deceased men. The sheriff’s department declined to comment, as did the NTSB, which is investigating the crash.
FlightPath reveals that the aircraft made several loops and a number 8 before crashing at 5,700 feet. Winslow is over 4,800 feet tall. At times, the aircraft flew higher than 15,000 feet and speeds in excess of 300 miles per hour before the hour-long, seven-minute flight ended. Speed was 100 mph when it crashed.
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