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Overseas National Airways

Captain Milt Marshall - IN MEMORIAM

Miltsīs Ceremony - by Captain George Flavell
I flew to Newark on Fri the 6th where Tom Murphy picked me up and kept me at his house for the weekend...together we picked up Ed Veronelli and Ted Secola and met Gordy Strothers at the church. To my knowledge we were the only ONA people there. I spoke at the service and described the flight that Milt had brought back after take off with all four engines failed...wrong fuel on board. After that a young man came over to me and asked me if I remembered his grandfather... I did...Blacky Blackburn an old navigator with us who had retired from PAA.
The service was nice, the day was beautifull, there could have been 200 people there and many stood up and spoke. Miltīs son was there, had flown in from the aircraft carrier "George Washington", which had just returned from the Persian Gulf. Kathie, his youngest daughter made it through the day which she was hopeing to do, since she is pregnant with twin boy's due on the 3rd of Sept.
Milt would have been proud.
Regards, George Flavell


Photo of Milt Marshall during his time as the ALPA MEC Chairman at ONA

Photo copyright Emilio Corsetti
CAPTAIN MILT MARSHALL IN MEMORIAM

ONA crew extend deepest felt condolences to Miltīs family.


Please give my best regards to the family. Milt was a good guy and captain.

Ben Conatser
Dave McCloy, Milt Marshall and Kathy Grandin Gursel
Ted Stowe, Milt Marshall and Margareta Thaute
Jacquie Law and Milt Marshall - all 3 photos from ONA NEW YORK Friendship Reunion October 25, 2003 at Lentiniīs.

ONA CREW IN MOURNING AT THE LOSS OF AN OUTSTANDING AVIATOR AND FRIEND, MILT MARSHALL IS NO LONGER WITH US, GOD BLESS HIS SWEET MEMORY

  • Regret hearing of Milt Marshall's untimely death. I hired him when he came with ONA. A sorrowful loss.

    Chief Pilot Robert Love,
    California

  • I am so shocked about the death of Milt Marshall, but grateful I saw him at the NY reunion in October 2003. I told him I remembered him as a wonderful pilot.

    Sadly, Jacquie Law,
    Bay City, Michigan

  • I had my first flight back in 1966 with Milt Marshall and met him at the New York reunion last year. It seems unreal he is no longer here.

    Margareta (Wulf) Thaute,
    Alford, Massachusetts

    I am very sorry to hear about Milt Marshall. What a tradegy.
    Sincerely, Francesca Hillman, California
    		• MESSAGE FROM MILT MARSHALLīS DAUGHTER

    My Dad thought the world of ONA and of everyone who worked there. He considered you all very dear friends. I can not count the many stories over the years that have been told by him, it was always apparent that you all had a lot of fun doing something that you truly loved. He was so proud to have been with such a great company and with all of you. His obituary is in today's (July 17, 2004) Danbury News Times and The Waterbury Republican Please express our thanks and gratitude to everyone who has been in touch with me and my family. The outpouring has been incredible. You all will hold a special place in my heart.

    Much Love,
    Kathie (Marshall) Leonzi

    MEMORIAL SERVICE
    A memorial service is planned for Saturday, August 7, 11:00 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Milford. Pilots who wish to wear their uniforms may do so to pay tribute to this consummate pilot and professional aviator.

    In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Trinity Lutheran Church, Route 7 North, New Milford, CT 06776 or The Lutheran Home of Southbury, 990 Main St. North, Southbury, CT 06488.

    Arrangements by Carpino Funeral Home, Southbury.




















    		http://www.NewsTimesLIVE.com
    2004-07-18

    Milton F. Marshall Milton F. Marshall was reunited with his beloved wife, Carol, on July 10, 2004, when he died in an aviation accident in Ticonderoga, New York. Mr. Marshall, a resident of Roxbury, was born December 2, 1928 in Eagle Bend, MN. He was the son of William and Ethel Marshall. He was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Milford and a Mason.
    "Milt" enjoyed a 60-year aviation career, most recently as owner and operator of Capital Airlines, Inc., an air charter business and flight school at Waterbury-Oxford Airport. Milt began as a crop duster, joined the U.S. Air Force, and participated in the Berlin Air Lift.
    He began a commercial aviation career with Capital Airlines, which was purchased by United Airlines in 1960. Captain Marshall went on to the worldwide charter airline, Overseas National Airways. While a pilot at ONA, he was elected to the position of MEC Chairman for the Airline Pilots Association. He later held the position of VP-Flight Operations at ONA. After retirement in 1978, he spent several years as a consultant and pilot with several start-up airlines.
    In the early 1980s, he and Carol bought a flight school at Waterbury-Oxford Airport. The couple resurrected the name, Capital Airlines, and secured an air charter certificate. The couple mentored many young people interested in aviation, and many of their students have become professional airline pilots.
    He leaves five daughters, Stephanie Lynn Weaver and husband Mark, Wauwatosa, WI; Michelle Ann Orser and husband Terry, Royal Oak, MI; Lynn Ann Gorman and husband Russell, Bethlehem; Kimberly Ann Chandler and husband Major Steven Chandler, Crestview, FL; and Kathie Lynn Leonzi and husband Thomas, Woodbury; two sons, Richard Akans II and wife Diane; and Navy Commander John Marshall, Virginia Beach, VA; twelve grandchildren, Chad Akans, Elizabeth and Kristin Byrdak; Samuel and Benjamin Weaver; Wesley and Evan Chandler; Russell Gorman Jr.; Erika Allen; Jacqueline Gorman; and Alexis Lynn and Thomas John Leonzi III.

    A memorial service is planned for Saturday, August 7, 11:00 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Milford. Pilots who wish to wear their uniforms may do so to pay tribute to this consummate pilot and professional aviator.

    In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Trinity Lutheran Church, Route 7 North, New Milford, CT 06776 or The Lutheran Home of Southbury, 990 Main St. North, Southbury, CT 06488. Arrangements by Carpino Funeral Home, Southbury.
    2004-07-26

    Article published in the Connecticut Post

    Monday, July 12, 2004

    Oxford pilot killed in crash Mystery remains over cause of airplane disaster
    By KEN DIXON and LINDA PINTO, Staff writers

    Milton F. Marshall, a legend at Waterbury-Oxford Airport, where he operated a flight school as owner of Capital Airlines, was killed with another man about six miles from an upstate New York airport. The Oxford airport community was somber and distraught Sunday, wondering how such a cautious and experienced pilot could die after more than a half-century of flying. A long-time Oxford resident who had recently moved to East Woods Road in Roxbury, Marshall, 76, was piloting a Piper Navajo that plummeted into thick woods and exploded about 85 miles north of Albany at about 9 a.m. Saturday, police said. Michael Keilty, 40, of Aspen Lane in the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, was his passenger in the flight from Waterbury-Oxford Airport to upstate New York. Marshall and Keilty were killed after the twin-engine plane was seen circling near a country club west of Ticonderoga, N.Y., police said. It dropped out of sight and witnesses heard a loud explosion.

    It crashed in a heavily wooded area of the eastern Adirondacks, near Putnam Pond State Campground, as it was attempting to reach a landing strip at Ticonderoga Airport. Marshall owned a charter operation, flight school and maintenance operation at the airport. In 1987, Marshall started Capital Airlines in homage to a defunct commercial carrier, where he began as a co-pilot in a Douglas DC-3 in Washington, D.C., back in 1952. He was one of the best pilots at Waterbury-Oxford Airport, according to airport manager Michael O'Donnell.
    "He had thousands of hours of experience," O'Donnell said. "He stopped counting. He was very experienced." Capital Airlines' Web page says that Marshall flew for the former Capital Airlines from 1952 until it was taken over by United Airlines in 1960. He continued flying for United. Marshall retired in 1986 and "felt a bit of nostalgia" so a year later started his own charter and instructional service, according to the airline. He and his staff flew eight-passenger charters to Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Myrtle Beach, N.C., and the Midwest.
    "He loved to fly. He was very well respected," O'Donnell said. "People here at the airport are distraught." O'Donnell said he first met Marshall in 1990 when he took lessons from one of Marshall's instructors. Marshall's grown children helped operate the business, O'Donnell said Sunday. Marshall's wife recently died of emphysema, O'Donnell said. O'Donnell said the big question around the airport is "Why did the plane crash?" He said Marshall was an excellent pilot and "never a risk taker." He said there were no mechanical problems with the plane and the weather conditions were good.
    "There are a lot of questions and very few answers," O'Donnell said. Officials at the Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake had planned an autopsy Sunday, but did not return a call for comment. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.
    The Associated Press contributed to this report.
    Plane crash claims 2 from area, Victims reported from Roxbury, Sandy Hook
    Monday, July 12, 2004
    By Alexander MacInnes

    Đ 2004 Republican-American

    OXFORD Police officials in Ticonderoga, N.Y., have identified the Connecticut pilot and passenger who died in a Saturday morning plane crash in upstate New York. Milton F. Marshall, 75, of Roxbury, owner and operator of Capital Airlines, a charter company and flight school based at the Waterbury-Oxford Airport, was flying passenger Michael Keilty, 40, of Sandy Hook, to Ticonderoga Municipal Airport from Oxford when their plane crashed in a remote area of the Adirondack mountains. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash, which was reported shortly after 9:30 a.m. Saturday, according to a statement from Ticonderoga Police Chief Jeffrey D. Cook. FAA officials did not return phone calls for comment on the cause of the crash, but witnesses said the conditions were clear. The twin-engine airplane crashed in a remote area of Old Fort Mountain, near an old logging trail, northwest of the Ticonderoga Country Club, Ticonderoga dispatcher Michael Alteri said. Emergency and fire crews were able to use that trail to access the crash site. Several small fires around the site were extinguished quickly. Mark Wood, a private pilot, helped direct the rescue efforts from his plane. At one point he flew 50 feet over the crash site. "It was not pretty," Wood said. "I couldn't even tell what kind of plane it was."
    Fred Shaw was playing golf at the time of the crash.
    "The plane was in trouble going over the top of this hill," he said. "I got to the third tee and said 'Why is that plane going so low? ' And it crashed." Marshall, who was a retired United Airlines pilot with almost 60 years of experience in the cockpit, started his own charter company in 1987 and had a "very clean record," according to his daughter, Kathie Leonzi. He was born in Minnesota and first started flying as a crop-duster in Indiana. He would later fly in the Berlin Airlift after World War II, his daughter said. "He was very well respected," Leonzi said. "I think everybody had a great deal of respect for him and everyone was fond of him. He taught a lot of people how to fly and a lot of those people became airline pilots themselves. That was something he was very proud of. He loved to teach." Leonzi described her father as someone in "terrific shape" and "well known in the aviation community." Waterbury-Oxford Airport Manager Michael O'Donnell said when he needed one more flight in order to receive his pilot's license, he went up with Marshall. When O'Donnell became the airport's director, knew him as a "well respected pilot with a lot of hours" in the cockpit. "He never took chances, he was never a risk taker," O'Donnell said. "That's why it is so hard to comprehend this accident. This is a well-respected man, who had more time flying than a lot of us have been alive." Although Marshall had a clean record, this was the second fatal crash in more than five months involving a plane operated by Capital Airlines. In February a pilot flying a Capital Airlines Piper from Erie International Airport in Pennsylvania back to Oxford crashed 25 miles outside the Erie airport. The pilot, who was the only person in the plane, reported "a rough running engine," according to the NTSB report. Marshall left two sons and five daughters.
    When asked what drew her father to becoming a pilot, Leonzi said she thought it was "the fascination with flight."
    The Post Star in Glens Falls N.Y. contributed to this report