Palm Bay pilot dead in gyrocopter crash at Valkaria Airport

A Brevard County pilot is dead after witnesses said he crashed a small gyrocopter into a parked plane Monday morning at Valkaria Airport. The pilot was later identified as Scott Adair of Palm Bay. Adair, 58, was affiliated with the Palm Bay Police Department, and flew alongside many members of the agency’s Search Operations Aerial Response (SOAR) team. According to a county spokesperson, the pilot was performing some maneuvers in a single-seat gyrocopter just before 8 a.m. Monday, when the aircraft slammed into a parked plane near the runway on the northern part of the airport, off Valkaria Road.