Death of Kent Feuerring Leaves Aviation World Reeling

The news that Kent Feuerring was the pilot killed in the crash of a small plane in Three Mile Harbor shocked a broad cross-section of the South Fork population. But his loss has hit the aviation community, of which he was a ubiquitous and integral part, especially hard.

The grounds around the hangars of East Hampton Airport, many of which are the personal clubhouses for plane owners, were in mourning in the days following the news of Feuerring’s death.

Since learning to fly in the 1980s, Feuerring had been a gregarious and well-liked member of the close-knit pilots’ circles based at East Hampton Airport. But in recent years, he’d emerged as a leader and champion for pilots, helping spread the gospel of flight.

For many, he was a close friend bonded by the same passion. His Facebook page was deluged in recent days by remembrances, and dozens of photos of various friends in a plane with Kent, some for the first time, many for the umpteenth time.

Kathryn Slye, a close friend and partner in airplane ownership, called Feuerring “a disciple of flight,” in reference to the documentary film that used the phrase to describe pilots who are immersed in aviation to a level that transcends being described simply as a pilot, aviator or enthusiast.

Slye and Feuerring had taken an idea birthed years ago by another pilot, Eliot Meisel, for hosting an aviation festival at the airport and turned it into the now annual Just Plane Fun Day, which draws aviators and aircraft — from World War II-era fighters to the latest in recreational aircraft — and crowds of kids and the curious to the airport each fall.

But Feuerring’s place in the East Hampton Airport world was not just as an affable acquaintance with a common passion.

As the president of the East Hampton Aviation Association and a member of the recently disbanded Airport Management Advisory Committee — a group of pilots, town officials and residents from the neighborhoods surrounding the airport — Feuerring had been one of the most prominent and important voices for pilots’ interests for many years, as those whose livelihoods and passions focused on the airport battled with those who have sought to close it or greatly curtail air traffic.

“He really was the voice for the pilots,” said Andy Sabin. “He was much more gentle with those people, the anti-airport people, than a lot of us can be. He got along well with everybody. He was the kind of guy you couldn’t dislike, no matter what you thought about anything he was saying.”

Arthur Malman, who sat on the AMAC with Feuerring until it was disbanded this year, said that he had a knack for being able to get people who were polarized at opposite ends of an issue to at least acknowledge the realities of the other.

“He excelled at bringing people together and trying to find ways to help everyone understand all sides,” Malman said. “He honestly wanted to make aviation in East Hampton work well for everybody and he respected other points of view as much as his own. He was a wonderful asset to this community.”

Many said that Feuerring’s patience with “the other side,” despite strident support for the interests of pilots, was what made him so important to the debate.

“He could get in the enemy camp and not get killed,” said Dean Foster. “He could talk to people who were trying to close the airport and they would listen. He could keep the dialogue going when others would walk away. We need people like that in this world.”

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and Councilwoman Sylva Overby echoed Foster’s thinking. “In a contentious atmosphere, he was always rational and calm,” Van Scoyoc said at Tuesday’s Town Board work session.

“Kent was always a gentleman — always,” Overby said. “His strength was bringing that element to what could be heated discussions. He always calmed the room down.”

With the airport debate now mired in pitched legal warfare and the threat of extended or permanent closure of the airport being aired more frequently than ever, some say that losing one of the airport’s most skilled diplomatists will be a difficult void to fill.

“It’s always a tragedy when you lose one of the good guys, and he was a really good guy,” said Gary Herman, one of the plaintiffs in the battery of lawsuits that have halted the town’s plans to impose new limits on flights at the airport. “But Kent really is irreplaceable for the aviation community on the East End of Long Island.”

“He always kept things very positive,” offered Bernadette Ruggerio, who works for Sound Aviation, the fixed based operator at East Hampton Airport. “He was always focused on keeping the pilots’ groups together. He made an effort to smile and connect with anyone he met and he was able to cross the bridge between groups. It’s up to us now to decide what we do with that legacy.”

The East Hampton Aviation Association was due to hold its semi-annual membership meeting at the airport on October 29. The gathering will now serve as a celebration of life for Feuerring.

“Kent was one of the good guys, no matter who you are,” Herman said, and offered that perhaps Feuerring’s memory should be made a permanent part of the aviation world on the South Fork. “I would love to see the terminal named after Kent, for all the contributions he made to aviation on the East End.”