Aaron Gingrich’s circus troupe bid farewell to the fallen trapeze artist with a soaring tribute after he and his 3-year-old daughter died in a plane crash during what investigators call a reckless flight.
“Your positive energy, your kindness, your beautiful way of sharing smiles, laughters and music will be remembered,” Apesanteur Trapèze Volant, the Switzerland-based group Gingrich performed with, wrote in a social media post. “Thank you, you will be deeply missed. We hope you’re flying and doing flips wherever you are now.”
The post included photos of Gingrich, 43, beaming mid-air during performances with the troupe.
The Colorado emergency medicine professor had taken his daughter Isabella on a three-hour erratic flight in his single-engine aircraft before crashing in the Rocky Mountains late Oct. 4, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report. The wreckage was found at roughly 7,360 feet near Eldorado Springs, where both bodies were recovered.
Another pilot had already flagged Gingrich’s behavior before the crash. Audio recordings obtained by a Denver station capture a pilot scolding Gingrich for his “dangerous takeoff” from Vance Brand Airport in Longmont.
“Hey Two Gulf Lima, thanks so much for cutting us off in the traffic pattern. Appreciate it,” the pilot said sarcastically over the radio. “We also have someone up uh upwind 2-9 who’s being really dangerous and put us off in pattern. So we’re just getting out of here.”
The recording did not indicate whether Gingrich, who received his private pilot’s license in 2016, had used his radio to respond.
First responders were alerted to the crash at 9:42 p.m. By the U.S. Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. The wreck was discovered just after 10 a.m. The following day about four miles from Mountain View Fire Rescue Station Nine, in terrain where elevations range between 6,500 and 7,500 feet. The NTSB noted the aircraft struck rising terrain approximately 300 feet below a ridgeline.
Gingrich’s flight path showed extreme variation in altitude. For nearly three hours he flew erratically around northern Colorado, climbing above 15,000 feet and dropping to just 7,375 feet above sea level only two minutes before impact, according to the preliminary report.
A Columbia University graduate, Gingrich was a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz, which confirmed his employment. His medical career had spanned five states and six countries as an ER doctor. He previously opened a ketamine treatment clinic in Texas in 2022, according to an online profile.
There was no controller in the tower when Gingrich departed, and the cause of the crash remains under investigation. Why he was flying so erratically with his young daughter aboard has not been determined.
Friends and family launched a GoFundMe to support Isabella’s mother, Lauren Willcox. “There are no words for the loss of sweet Bella, who was only three years old,” the fundraising page states. “Our hearts are broken for Lauren as she faces the unimaginable pain of losing her little girl.”
The NTSB investigation into the fatal crash is ongoing.