Pilots killed were flying Navy plane

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The Navy confirmed to WKRG-TV5 that the two people killed in a plane crash June 10 near Sardis, Ala., were personnel assigned to NAS Pensacola. A pilot and a passenger were in a Piper PA-32 plane, according to Dallas County (Ala.) Coroner Alan Dailey; and the local District Attorney identified the victims as Joshua Fuller and Vincent Segars, two Navy pilots. Dailey said the small plane crashed off Dallas County Road 138 near the J.B. Hain farming community, four miles southwest of Craig Field, around 4:40 p.m. Wednesday. Capt. Segars was serving as commanding officer of the Naval Aviation Schools Command, according to his Navy biography. He also served a tour as a primary instructor pilot with Training Squadron (VT) 6 at NAS Whiting Field, Fla. Cmdr. Fuller was the former commander of Training Squadron 86. He relinquished command in late 2019. (Source: Selma Times Journal & WKRG-TV 06/11/10) VT-86 trains U.S. and multi-nationals to be Naval Flight Officers at NAS Pensacola. NASC Pensacola was the site of the December 2019 terrorist shooting that killed three U.S. sailors and wounded eight others before the gunman, a Saudi student, was killed. UPDATE: The pilots took off from Jasper, Ala., headed to NAS Pensacola when they apparently encountered engine trouble, according to an official. The plane, according to Dallas County sheriff Mike Granthum, belonged to Fuller. (Source: WSFA 06/11/20) UPDATE: According to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Capt. Segars and Cmdr. Joshua Fuller were flying a Navy aircraft when the plane went down near a small airport in Selma, Ala. (Source: WCJB-TV 06/13/20) UPDATE2: The Pensacola News Journal reported Segars was from South Carolina and was commissioned into the Navy on Sept. 6, 1990, through the NROTC Program at Georgia Tech. Segars was a native of Valdosta, Ga., according to Stars and Stripes.