California man identified as pilot who died in fiery plane crash in Johnson County Sunday
The pilot who died Sunday in a plane crash just north of Johnson County Executive Airport has been identified as a California lawyer.
Robert Ming, 51, of Laguna Niguel, was confirmed dead after the plane crashed at 10:20 a.m. at the end of a runaway for unknown reasons, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.
The Kansas Highway Patrol crash report listed Ming as the sole occupant of the 2012 fixed wing single-engine aircraft.
The plane crashed shortly after taking off, north of the runway near 151st Street. Smoke from the plane could be seen from a couple miles away. The fire sparked a small grass fire a couple acres wide that had to be extinguished.
Firefighters found the plane “fully engulfed” in flames in the middle of a field, Capt. Mike Hall with the Olathe Fire Department said Sunday.
“You get an event like this and it just reminds you how precious life is,” Hall said. “Today is just a horrible event.”
According to the Federal Aviation Administration registry and Flight Aware, the plane was registered to Quadrant Investments, incorporated in Delaware, and it was bound for Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Ming, who began his law career in Los Angeles in 1995, was a managing partner at Quadrant Law Group. He was previously the mayor of Laguna Niguel in 2009 and 2013, and served on the city’s city council in 2006 and was reelected in 2010.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
Crashes at Johnson County Executive Airport
Earlier this month, on Feb. 4, a pilot and passenger sustained minor injuries when the single-engine plane they were flying in crashed into a line of trees near the airport. The Federal Aviation Administration was also called in to investigate that crash.
Prior to Sunday, the last fatal crash at the airport happened on New Year’s Eve of 2019, Hall said.
The pilot and passenger, a man from Arkansas and a woman from Texas, were killed when a small single-engine plane crashed during takeoff.
This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 10:50 AM.
