Rob Holland, the badass stunt pilot who defied gravity like it owed him money, died in a crash Thursday morning at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. The guy was just 50. He was in town to light up the Air Power Over Hampton Roads airshow this weekend. Instead… heartbreak.
His single-seat MXS — think “Ferrari with wings” — went down hard while approaching the runway around 11:30 AM. No crazy maneuvers. No showtime stunts. Just a quiet, sudden tragedy as the plane veered left and went silent. FAA and NTSB are on it.
Rob wasn’t your average weekend hobby flyer. This dude was the LeBron James of aerobatics. Thirteen-time U.S. National Aerobatic Champ. Fourteen-time U.S. Freestyle Champ. The kind of guy who made loop-de-loops look like ballet in the clouds. If you’ve been to an airshow in the last decade, odds are you’ve gasped watching him pull G’s like he was born in a cockpit.
And it wasn’t just fans who looked up to him — the U.S. Air Force had him on the ticket with the Thunderbirds and the F-22 Raptor demo team. That’s like getting booked at Coachella… for pilots.
Langley’s top brass, Col. Matthew Altman, called him “a friend of our Air Force family.” Fans online? Devastated. His team broke the news on Instagram, confirming the loss and thanking supporters.
Rob was more than a pilot — he was a mentor, a record-smasher, and a showman. The guy made the impossible look easy. And now, the sky just got a little quieter.
RIP, Rob. You didn’t just fly — you owned the sky.
Leave a Reply