Lawrence and Douglas county
Missing pilot was adventurous at KU
Plane disappeared on flight over Africa
August 30, 2007
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In this undated photo provided by Air Capital Drop Zone.com, pilot Lori Love, a 1972 KU graduate, is shown refueling a plane. Her whereabouts are unknown.
The disappearance of Lori Love's plane in the African desert may be rooted here in Lawrence.
A 1972 graduate of Kansas University, Love accumulated many of her initial flight hours here and started skydiving in the area, too.
"She and two or three other girls were into skydiving, and she went from that into flying," said her father, Loren Fred.
Love's plane disappeared Aug. 17 as she ferried a plane from Florida to South Africa. Controllers lost contact with her about an hour after she took off from Accra, Ghana. Her father said he hadn't heard much since she was reported missing.
"I don't really know what's going on. I haven't been informed of anything," he said. "I've come to expect that, though. I just don't think there's anything that anyone can do."
Love, who grew up in Wichita, graduated from KU with degrees in math and chemistry.
Longtime friend and McLouth resident Beverly Muzzy said Love lived to do things other people weren't doing at that time.
"She just couldn't wait to get out to the airport, and we're talking about the late '60s and early '70s," Muzzy said. "This was really unique for a young woman at that time."
The two women met when Love was in school here and both were living in a local boarding house. Muzzy said they lived across the hall from each other, and even though Love incessantly played "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," the two young women became fast friends.
"None of us that knew her then are surprised she's found herself in this predicament," Muzzy said.
Muzzy said Love lived her life without limits, always looking for the next challenge.
It's that spirit that has Muzzy convinced that Love could have survived whatever happened to her plane.
"She's like MacGyver; she can do, fix, create anything," Muzzy said. "I just know if there's a human being that could go down and even after a length of time be found, it would be Lori."
Muzzy said she hoped people in this part of the world realized how proud they should be of what Love has done.
"She was grounded here. She would come back here to visit. She never stopped. She never slowed down," Muzzy said. "There was this Amelia Earhart spirit in her to just go wherever the wind goes."
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30 August 2007
at 11:28 a.m.
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Centrist (Anonymous) says…
From the article ..
“” The disappearance of Lori Love's plane in the African desert may be rooted here in Lawrence.”“
And exactly HOW can a degree earned at KU 35 years ago have anything to do with this unfortunate turn of events?
Bad journalism at best; at worst, an attempt to mis-lead the reader into continuing the article.
Come on, ljworld, come on ..
30 August 2007
at 11:30 a.m.
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Centrist (Anonymous) says…
I sincerely hope she is found alive and well though. Sounds like an amazing woman.
30 August 2007
at 1:46 p.m.
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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…
Centrist:
Were you born an a==hole or are you did you study at it?
30 August 2007
at 1:55 p.m.
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Kontum1972 (Anonymous) says…
not that good of an aviator if she wasnt carrying a GPS beacon for a flight like that over such hostile territory…probably shot down by some radical group using her for target practice an russian made SA-7 Grail would make short work of that plane.
30 August 2007
at 2:10 p.m.
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Dover (Anonymous) says…
This is an amazing story, and well-written. What a neat woman Lori Love sounds like. I hope she is OK.
30 August 2007
at 2:47 p.m.
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The_Original_Bob (Anonymous) says…
http://www.kansas.com/510/story/15608…
A bit more in depth of an article.
Kontum - Thanks for playing CSI Africa! That's exactly what I thought happened since you know, I'm 15,000 miles away with little to no access to the non-existent evidence.
30 August 2007
at 9:22 p.m.
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Marion (Marion Lynn) says…
High Flight
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth.
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings,
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle, flew;
And, while with silent, lifting mind i've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie Magee Jr.
In December 1941, Pilot Officer John Magee, a 19 year old American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England, was killed when his Spitfire collided with another aircraft inside a cloud. Several months before his death, he composed his immortal sonnet “High Flight”, a copy of which he fortunately mailed to his parents in the United States.