Woman dies on romantic flight with boyfriend

A flight attendant has died on a romantic evening flight after her boyfriend’s vintage aircraft crashed into woodland.

Mandy Linder. Picture: Jam Press

A woman has died on a romantic flight after her boyfriend’s vintage aircraft crashed into woodland.

Mandy Linder, 30, who worked as a flight attendant for British airline TUI, was a passenger in her pilot partner’s Boeing Stearman PT-17 Kaydet when it plummeted from the sky.

Ms Linder was killed instantly while her 30-year-old boyfriend was admitted to ICU with serious injuries and is “devastated with grief,” according to Ms Linder’s sister, Nathalie.

The couple went for a romantic evening flight close to Ms Linder’s home in Hasselt, Belgium, on Friday, June 28.

Mandy Linder, who is a flight attendant, was a passenger on her boyfriend’s vintage aircraft when it plummeted from the sky. Picture: Jam Press

Locals spotted the vintage aircraft flying very low over their houses.

Moments later, it crashed into an area of woodland.

Ms Linder had met her boyfriend, a commercial airline pilot, two years ago while travelling.

He had travelled from his home in West Flanders in Belgium to pick Ms Linder up for the flight in his classic aircraft, which he had owned for just four months.

“They often did that when the weather was nice,” Nathalie, 31, said.

“She even messaged me, ‘He came to pick me up and we’re going to fly over my garden.’

“She rented a little meadow in Kiewit, just five minutes from her house, where she kept some animals.

“She loved animals. She had goats, chickens, and peacocks.

“She wanted to fly over the meadow to see her animals from above.”

For reasons still unknown, something went wrong after they had flown two laps over Ms Linder’s meadow.

Nathalie told local media: “We don’t know exactly what went wrong, but her boyfriend is not to blame. He is an experienced pilot and acted as he should.

“He even directed the plane toward the woods to try to break the fall. It was truly a tragic accident.”

The pair were having a romantic day when tragedy struck and the Boeing Stearman PT-17 crashed into woodland. Picture: Jam Press

Ms Linder will be laid to rest in Eijsden on Saturday, July 6. She is survived by her parents and her four-month-old goddaughter.

The crash remains under investigation by Belgium’s Air Accident Investigation Unit.

Pieter Strauven of the Limburg Public Prosecutor’s Office said: “For now, with the information we have, we are assuming it was a tragic accident.”

Nathalie added: “Mandy was full of life. Whenever she was around, there was always laughter.”

The Boeing Stearman PT-17 Kaydet is one of the most recognisable pre-WWII training aircraft.

The aircraft was conceived in 1933 and more than 1000 models are still flying.