Crashed Pilot’s body still in cockpit one year after

Remains of Pilot Bill Fitzpatrick, the American pilot who got missing on June 22^nd 2014 is still seated in the cockpit of his crashed Cessna 172 almost a month after villagers discovered the wreckage of his anti-poaching aircraft.

A Cessna 172

Fitzpatrick who is a US citizen and resident Pilot at Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo went missing after taking off from Kano, Nigeria in a Cessna 172 on June 22 2014. He was scheduled to arrive in Douala, Cameroon later that evening but failed to do so. A coordinated search involving the US State Department and Cameroonian authorities however yielded no result. Although the find has brought relief to the family and loved ones, his body is yet to be removed from the cockpit almost a year after the accident. This is said to be delayed as the employers of Fizpatrick, the African Parks, are waiting for assistance of the Cameroon authority to retrieve the body.

Pilot Bill Fitzpatrick

By April 2015, the wreckage was discovered by villagers in the forest mountainous terrain of Cameroon.