A pilot who died in a plane crash at a Wisconsin air show July 29 has been identified as Devyn Reiley, the daughter of two-time Super Bowl champion Bruce Collie.
She was 30, and the oldest of thirteen siblings.
“She was a go-getter. A pilot. She had the best work ethic of any woman I know. She loved her family. Loved her husband,” Reiley’s younger sister Calyn Collie, 21, tells TODAY.com in an interview.
“There was a kind of bittersweetness that comes from knowing that, in the pain of losing her, we lost her while she was doing something she loved with all her heart,” Calyn Collie says.
Reiley was one of four people killed in separate crashes July 29 during a popular annual airshow air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
The 30-year-old aviator and her co-pilot, whose identity has not been released, were flying a single-engine North American T-6 Texan during the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh airshow when it crashed into Lake Winnebago, around 9 a.m. Saturday, just minutes after takeoff, according to a statement from The Federal Aviation Administration.
Both Reiley and her co-pilot died in the crash.
Joining Reiley at the airshow was her husband, fellow pilot Hunter Reiley. The couple had celebrated their third wedding anniversary just three days before.
Devyn Reiley shared a love of flying with her dad
Devyn Reiley inherited her love of flying from her dad, who played for the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles.
“My dad is also a pilot, commercially rated,” Calyn Collie says. “He and Devyn were really close. Devyn was a daddy’s girl. They shared that passion for flying together. Devyn loved flying ever since she was a little girl.”
Bruce Collie posted a photo tribute to his late daughter on Facebook July 29, writing. “I trust You my King….ALL THINGS to work together for good…”
The close-knit family of Bruce Collie
Bruce Collie and his wife, Holly, a former model, welcomed Devyn in 1993. The couple, who live in Wimberley, Texas, also share 12 younger children.
Since news of Reiley’s accident, the couple and their kids have leaned on one another in their grief, says Calyn Collie.
“We’ve always been a very close-knit family. We love Jesus and we love each other and we all love Devyn. We’re going to do what it takes and help each other through this loss,” Calyn Collie tells TODAY.com.
She adds, “Everybody from all the different states is coming home (to Wimberley) now. We’re all going to be there tonight.”
‘She had a fire about her’
Once the family members are together again, Calyn Collie says, they’ll honor their late sister and daughter whose goodness was inherent in everything she did.
“She had a fire about her that everybody could see and also a gentleness that made you always feel heard and seen,” she says.
Despite their nine-age difference, Reiley and Collie had a close relationship. “She was one of my best friends,” says Collie, struggling to hold back tears.
Calyn Collie says she wants others to remember Reiley as “a devoted sister, daughter and wife,” as well as “a pilot who wanted to share her love of aviation with other young women and men.”
“Everybody who ever met her, they became family to her,” she said. “So we’re all in the same boat. We’re all going through this together.”
Collie has organized a GoFundMe in her late sister’s memory to benefit Reiley’s “beloved” husband.
The crash that took Reiley’s life was one of two fatal crashes that happened Saturday at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh airshow. A midair collision between a helicopter and a gyrocopter left two dead and two injured, according to the FAA.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating both incidents.
