Baseball umpire killed in plane crash while on the way to Danville

Bobby Walker stared at the time on his cell phone, stared at the Danville Regional Airport runway, wondered where in the world his partner was. It was unusual for James “Jay” Youngquist to arrive late, and he wouldn’t pick up his phone. He was conscientious, and a seasoned pilot. He will call, Walker thought. Perhaps he got caught in some strong headwind, he surmised.

Walker and Youngquist, longtime baseball umpires, were less than an hour away from the start of a game at Averett University in Danville, a game they were supposed to work, when Walker called his supervisor to alert him that Youngquist had yet to arrive.

“While we were on the phone, Jay’s wife called,” Walker said. “She was shocked and hysterical. She got a call from some emergency group telling her that her husband’s plane went down. … I was pretty shaken by it.”

Youngquist, 63, of Reston, died Thursday afternoon when his small twin-engine Cessna T303 Crusader crashed into a house about a quarter mile from the Louisa County Airport, where Youngquist had stopped to take on 148 gallons of fuel, tearing through the structure as it and the plane burst into flames. Firefighters needed approximately 15 minutes to put out the blaze, which spread into the house’s front yard as a black plume of smoke rose from the wreckage. The homeowner, who was in the basement at the time of the crash, escaped unharmed. There were no other passengers aboard the six-seat aircraft, which was en route from Manassas to Danville.

The FAA reports that witnesses have said the engines of the plane appeared to quit.

The crash is being investigated by the Virginia State Police, the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board. Authorities are waiting for the state medical examiner’s office to identify the pilot.

Greg Walls, the Supervisor of Officials for the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, along with Walker and other umpires, confirmed that Youngquist was the pilot. Telephone calls to Youngquist’s home went unanswered.

“He was headed to the assignment that I gave him,” said Walls, who had flown with Youngquist on several occasions. “He loved baseball so much. He was going to spend $700 on fuel to go work a $125 baseball game. That’s the kind of guy he was. … They’re still referring to ‘the pilot,’ and I understand why, but I wish they would just hang a name on it. There’s a lot of good stories behind Jay Youngquist.”

Averett baseball coach Ed Fulton penciled Youngquist’s name on his lineup card when news of the crash reached the school.

“There was just no way I could go over there and umpire a baseball game,” Walker said. “There was just no way. So I just sat at the airport for awhile.”

There was an announcement to the crowd and a moment of silence before the game, a 10-4 Averett loss to Hampden-Sydney, which was officiated by longtime umpires George Henderson and H.F. Haymore.

“It was tough during that national anthem,” Henderson said. “It puts life in perspective. (Baseball) is meaningless, when you come down to it.”

Averett officials declined to comment.

Henderson, the only umpire at the start of the game, and Haymore, who arrived in the second inning, agreed that Youngquist would have wanted the game to be played.

Walker tried to convey the close fraternity that umpires share.

“When you take the field, there’s three teams,” Walker said. “There’s the two teams that are competing and then there’s the umpiring team. You are working together. You have to have each other’s back just like a teammate does. You’re the third team on the field. It’s a teammate, it’s a brotherhood, and everybody is concerned about each other.

“He was just a good guy. Just one of the boys. Just one of the umpires,” Walker said.

“It’s almost like brothers, like family, when you get into this thing,” Haymore said. “That’s just the way umpiring is. … There’s great camaraderie. … It made me sick when George called me.”

Youngquist, who was retired, made a habit of refueling in Louisa because fuel prices tended to be less expensive there, several umpires said.

“I think he flew to most of his games, rather than driving all over the place,” Walker said.

“My furthest game is six hours away. I’d fly too if I had a plane,” Henderson said.

“I know he had more than 20 years of experience in the air,” Walls said. “He was extremely experienced. Even whenever it was just he and I flying … he was very, very businesslike.”

“It just floored me. I’m not going to kid you,” Walker said about receiving the phone call from Youngquist’s wife. “I’ve never been associated with anything like that. To hear her crying and screaming. She didn’t know if he had made it, she just knew that his plane had gone down. What can you say? So I called Greg back and I told him that Jay’s plane had gone down.

“The finality of it set in at that point,” Walker said. “I just hung around for a few minutes and collected myself and just drove on back home.”