Described by colleagues as "one of the top three or four performers" in the business, air show pilot Eric Beard, 48, died Friday when the Piper Seneca he was flying crashed in fog about 400 yards short of the runway at Skagit Regional Airport near Burlington, Wash. Beard was perhaps better-known for flying a rare Yak-54 nicknamed Russian Thunder in air shows all over the world. On Friday he was flying for Airpac Airlines, a Seattle-based cargo company. He worked part-time for Airpac and also worked for Boeing. His last transmission to Whidbey Island approach was normal and there was no indication of an emergency, according to Tom Peterson, air search coordinator with the state department of transportation.
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