TOPEKA (KSNT) – The pilot who died in a plane crash in north Shawnee County is being honored and remembered by his former Kansas Air National Guard unit.

Retired Chief Master Sgt. Steven D. Stucky, 72, of Topeka was the pilot of a plane that was reported to have crashed in the 5000 block of NE Shaffer Road at around 12 p.m. on Saturday, July 16.

Chief Master Sgt. Steven D. Stucky (pictured in the middle) laughing with his unit members (Photo Courtesy/Kansas Air National Guard).

The 2007 RV-7 plane took off to the south from a private airstrip. Then, Stucky turned west when the plane stalled, flipped and went nose first into the ground, according to KHP crash logs.

Chief Master Sgt. Steven D. Stucky was a member of the 190th Air Refueling Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard. He began his career in April 1967, initially served as a flight simulator technician and shortly moved into the avionics maintenance career field.

  • Stucky playfully running from a unit member spraying him with a water hose (Photo Courtesy/Kansas Air National Guard).
  • (Photo Courtesy/Kansas Air National Guard).

Stucky attended Combat Crew Training School at Castle Air Force Base in 1977 and then went on to be an inflight refueling instructor for 20 years. He also served as the Chief Boom Operator for the Operations Group and in January 2001 was named the 190ARW Command Chief Master Sergeant; a position he served in for three years before retiring from the Kansas Air National Guard in 2004.

(Photo Courtesy/Kansas Air National Guard).

The 190th Air Refueling Wing said Stucky logged more than 5000 hours including combat support missions during Desert Storm, Operation Northern Watch, Allied Force and combat missions over Bosnia.

The Federal Aviation Administration is still investigating the plane crash.