William "Bill" Gordon was a 56 year old pilot originally from upstate Copake, New York but living in Key West, Florida with more than 25 years of flying experience. He was the former chief pilot and chief mechanic at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Red Hook near Brooklyn, New York. Bill was a grandfather with a son, a daughter, and three grandchildren.

For a Key West air show in April Bill acted as an "aerobatic competency evaluator" who certified performers to perform low-level aerobatics.

Death

William Gordon was flying a “Jacky’s Revenge,” a vintage P-47 Thunderbolt fighter plane from the Second World War on a photo flight with two other planes. The planes had departed on a photo flight from the American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale, New York.

After suffering from a mechanical failure, thought by witnesses to be engine trouble, the plane crashed into the Hudson River just south of a marina in Edgewater, New Jersey.

To signal to rescuers where the plane had crash one of the planes circled the area of the crash for 30 minutes.

William Gordon's body was recovered when the Army Crops Engineering removed the plane from the river.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board.