SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — One of two pilots died on a private jet owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil after the aircraft veered off a runway in Arizona and hit a business jet, according to a Federal Aviation Administration incident report.
The pilot who died was 78-year-old Joie Vitosky, according to the Scottsdale Police Department. He was certified as a flight engineer since 1978 and a pilot since 2019, according to FAA records.
Vitosky, originally from Okemah, Oklahoma, joined the Marine Corps in his early twenties because he wanted to fly, his ex-wife Ann Vitosky said. He became a Marine Corps aviator and flew helicopters in Vietnam in 1969, she said. After spending over a decade with the Marine Corps, he started flying Learjets.
Ann Vitosky said she believed he had been flying for Neil for “a few” years.
She said he died doing what he loved, and he would probably be happy to go the way he did. “His passion was flying,” she said.
The two share three children and four grandchildren.
The landing gear on the private jet appeared to have failed, sending it crashing into the other jet Monday afternoon, said Kelli Kuester, aviation planning and outreach coordinator at Scottsdale Airport. Another pilot and two passengers aboard Neil’s plane were seriously injured, the FAA report said.
Neil was not on his plane, a law firm representing him said. The crew member on the parked jet was not seriously injured and received treatment, said the jet’s owner, Jet Pros.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the collision. Authorities have not released the identities of anyone on either jet.
Mötley Crüe briefly posted on its X account Monday that Neil’s girlfriend and her friend were the passengers on Neil’s jet before deleting the post and replacing it with another post. Poison singer Bret Michaels offered thoughts and prayers to Neil’s girlfriend, Rain Hannah, whom he described as a family friend, and others who were injured in the collision.
“To all my family, friends and fans, what are you traveling by – plane, train or automobile? Absolutely have fun, but please travel safely. We need you so we can keep rocking the world together!!!” Michaels wrote Tuesday on X.
Hannah’s barrel-racing coach posted on Instagram that Hannah and her friend Ashley were flying into Scottsdale to meet him for the Royal Crown barrel-racing competition in Buckeye. The Associated Press left a message for the coach Tuesday.
Kuester said Neil’s jet had been coming in from Austin, Texas. The runway was closed in the hours following the collision, but it has since reopened.
