Dale “Snort” Snodgrass, one of the warbird world’s most respected pilots, was killed on Saturday in the crash of a Marchetti SM.109 in Lewiston, Idaho. Details remain sketchy but the crash occurred just after noon. The aircraft is a high-wing STOL design based on the Cessna 0-1 Bird Dog and built by the Italian manufacturer. Snodgrass is known for his many airshow performances in warbirds and was revered in the warbird community.
Snodgrass was a legendary F-14 pilot in the U.S. Navy and was famously photographed in a knife edge pass close to the USS America aircraft carrier in 1988. Snodgrass was the F-14 demo pilot for Navy for more than a decade and has flown a laundry list of warbirds at airshows around the country. Tributes poured in after word of his death spread in the airshow community. “Snort was a talented aviator, an enormously entertaining air show performer, and a longtime advocate for the air show business,” International Council of Air Shows President John Cudahy wrote in a Facebook post. “His death is a true tragedy for the entire aviation community.”
sad to hear.
Requiem en pacem, Snort. Fair winds and following seas, Shipmate.
This guy buzzed me and my father in law (a Navy Commodore) driving by Oceana.
Any accident details?
So sad he was bigger than life. I saw him demonstrate the F-14 in the 90’s. It was an amazing beast of a machine expertly handled by Mr. Snodgrass. A great loss for the aviation family.