Former Child Pilot Commits Suicide

Vicki Van Meter, the girl who at age 11 astounded the nation with a 5-hour cross-country flight, is dead at 26, the AP reports, of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. Van Meter’s trans-continental flight was a record at the time, and a year later she became the youngest pilot to fly across the Atlantic. “We all thought she was coping,” her brother said of her history of depression.

Van Meter’s body was found in her home on Sunday. Since her high-flying days, Van Meter has gone to college, joined the Peace Corps, and recently worked as an insurance investigator. She was applying to graduate school in psychology. She “led a full and interesting life,” her mother said. “She had more guts than any of us could ever imagine.” (More suicide stories.)