Georgia Flight Instructor Tim Scheuing Died in a Takeoff Crash at Waycross Three Weeks Before His Second Daughter Was Due
Amanda Scheuing met her husband, Tim, when she was 16, and the couple celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary this year. She identified him to WALB as the pilot who died Friday, Nov. 6, when a small plane went down as it left the Waycross-Ware County Airport in Georgia. The Scheuings have a 16-year-old daughter, and a second daughter is due in about three weeks.
Together since she was 16
According to WALB, Amanda Scheuing and her husband met while working together when she was 16, and they began dating soon afterward. The station reported that she described him as a devoted father, husband and Christian. The FOX Carolina report, which carried WALB’s story, said the couple had been married 20 years and noted that they celebrated their anniversary this year.
The family’s first daughter is 16. The second is expected in about three weeks. Action News Jax, in a report carried by WOKV, described Amanda Scheuing as eight months pregnant and said a GoFundMe page for the family was created by Brittany Crews of Waycross.
The pilot was not named in the first reports. WALB’s initial story on Friday afternoon said only that officials had confirmed one person was aboard, and the station followed on Sunday with the identification from his wife.
What Amanda Scheuing says about him
In remarks shared with WALB, Amanda Scheuing began with how hard the moment is to process: “Words are hard to process right now.” She went on to describe her husband as “funny, quick-witted, adventurous and a helping hand to anyone.”
She told the station that he was loved by everyone and touched many lives, and that he was the best person she has known and the best possible husband and father for their children. In her words to WALB, he was “loved by everyone and touched so many lives.”
She also thanked emergency crews, first responders, airport staff, family, friends and the couple’s church family, according to FOX Carolina, whose version of the story was published Monday, Nov. 9.
A Friday morning at the Waycross-Ware County Airport
The Federal Aviation Administration’s list of accident and incident statements records that a Beechcraft BE35 crashed while departing from Waycross-Ware County Airport at about 11:15 a.m. local time on Friday, Nov. 6, with only the pilot aboard. The BE35 is a single-engine, four-seat aircraft, according to the WOKV report.
WALB’s first report that afternoon placed the airport in southeast Georgia, attributed the time and aircraft type to the FAA and said the NTSB would lead the investigation. The county coroner told Action News Jax that the pilot had died, WOKV reported. The station also noted that the terminal at the airport was closed Friday.
A flight school at the same airport
Tim Scheuing was a pilot, a flight instructor and the owner of Runway One Nine Aviation, WALB reported. Friends and his wife told Action News Jax he was an experienced pilot who ran a flight school at the Waycross airport.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the cause, and the FAA is also investigating, according to WALB and the FAA. WALB said the circumstances remain under investigation and that it will provide updates as more information becomes available. No cause has been announced.
The first WALB report was brief. It listed the time, the airport, the aircraft type and the number of people aboard, then said no other information was available at that point. The details about the family came two days later, when WALB’s Taylor Lewis wrote the Sunday story that carried Amanda Scheuing’s words, and FOX Carolina’s Gray Media version followed on Monday.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: ZLEA – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons
