>
Britain’s only female Spitfire pilot has been killed in a car crash while on holiday in Australia, 34 years after her husband suffered the same fate.
Carolyn Grace, 70, who lives in Cornwall, was driving her Suziki car in the city of Goulbourn, southwest of Sydney, when she collided with a silver Hilux on Friday.
Carolyn, believed to have been the only practising female Spitfire pilot in the world, was visiting her family in Australia at the time of the crash.
Carolyn, originally from Australia, was airlifted to hospital but died of her injuries, 34 years after her husband, Nick, was killed in a car crash in Sussex, UK, in 1988.
Carolyn Grace, 70, who lives in Cornwall, was driving her Suziki car in the city of Goulbourn, southwest of Sydney, when she collided with a silver Hilux on Friday. Pictured: Carolyn with her spitfire at South airport in 2011
Carolyn Grace is pictured here with her Spitfire. She pioneered the restoration of World War Two Spitfires in the 1980s with her late husband, Nick, from their home in Cornwall
Her 38-year-old son Richard was a passenger in the car and survived the crash and was treated for minor injuries.
Carolyn’s daughter, Daisy Grace, said the family had been left ‘traumatised’ by her unexpected death.
Mrs Grace pioneered the restoration of Second World Spitfires in the 1980s with her late husband, Nick, at their home in Cornwall.
After Nick died in 1988, the mother-of-two learned to fly the restored plane to keep her husband’s memory alive.
Over the next three decades, the aviation pioneer clocked over 900 hours in the aircraft, flying it at air shows and memorial events across Europe.
Although more than 20,000 Spitfires were produced shortly before, during and after the Second World War, the Spitfire ML407, known as the ‘Grace Spitfire’, is one of only a handful to survive today.
And it is all the more special as it was the first Allied plane to shoot down an enemy aircraft above the Normandy beaches on D-Day.
Carolyn’s children, Richard and Daisy, helped her run their Spitfire restoration business, Air Leasing Limited in Northamptonshire.
Following the fatal crash in New South Wales, Daisy said: ‘It is with great sadness that we must announce that Carolyn Grace has been killed in a car accident on Friday.
‘This is a traumatic, and unexpected, loss to all of us.’
Carolyn’s death has sparked tributes from hundreds of aviation enthusiasts and institutions describing her as an ‘inspirational woman’ and a ‘legend of the sky’.
Carolyn Grace, the world’s only woman Spitfire pilot, in the aircraft that survivied 176 wartime missions in 2004
Andy Saunders, a Battle of Britain historian, said: ‘With her husband Nick, Carolyn Grace was the first pioneers of Spitfire restoration in Britain.
‘It is a tragic irony that she has died in a car crash, just as Nick had died in 1988.
‘It is awful news. Her death is a huge loss to the world of historic aviation.’
A spokesman for the Kent Battle of Britain Museum said: ‘For this tragedy to happen twice is beyond words. Our thoughts and prayers are with Daisy and Richard.’
Dale Leeks, a Spitfire enthusiast, said: ‘I’m very sad to hear of the death of Carolyn Grace. She was a legend of the skies and a big part of the love our family have for the Spitfire.
‘When I chose to get my dad a flight in a Spitfire there was no choice for me – it had to be your one’.
Carolyn became world renowned as she became Britain’s only female Spitfire pilot.
Her passion for the plane stems from her late husband Nick, who bought the aircraft, which required a full rebuild, from a Scottish museum in 1979.
A design engineer and pilot, Nick set about painstakingly restoring it at St Merryn airfield in Cornwall, a process that took more than five years.
But tragedy struck before their dreams could be realised when Nick was killed in a car accident in 1988, just three years after getting the Spitfire airborne again.
Although she was already a qualified pilot, she took the intrepid decision to train as a Spitfire pilot, to the shock of many. She is the first woman to have done so since the women of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) service in the Second World War.
A spokesman for the Hume Police District in New South Wales, said: ‘A woman has died and her passenger injured in a two vehicle crash at Goulburn.
‘The crash happened at 6pm on Friday 2 December 2022, when a grey Suzuki and a silver Hilux collided on Middle Arm Road.
‘Officers from The Hume Police District attended and found a 70-year-old woman driving the Suzuki had suffered critical injuries. She was airlifted to The Canberra Hospital where she later died.
‘Her passenger, a 38-year-old man, was taken to the same hospital with minor injuries.
‘Two men in the Hilux, aged 44 and 30, were not injured.
‘The older man, who was driving, was taken to Goulburn Hospital for mandatory testing. Inquiries are continuing’.