Born: 16 February 1920, United States
Died: 3 December 1943
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from HistoryLink.org, in line with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Thirty-eight pilots in the WASP program were killed in training or on mission flights. Since the women pilots were not actually in the military, they had no benefits, not even burial coverage. For a number of those killed, fellow pilots contributed to ship the body home for burial. Often another pilot would accompany the body to the deceased pilot’s hometown. The deaths included five Washington women.
Dorothy F. Scott (1920-1943) was killed in a mid-air collision on December 3, 1943. She was on approach to landing at the Palm Springs, California, airbase. Scott had clearance while a second plane, a fighter, was next in landing order. The faster fighter overtook Scott’s plane and crashed into it. Scott, of Oroville, Washington, was a 1941 graduate of the University of Washington. She had earned a private pilot’s license by the time she graduated. In 1942 she obtained an instructor’s license and was teaching new pilots at the Moscow-Pullman Airport. She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron in November 1942. She was one of the original members of the ferrying squadron. She went to Love Field in Texas for ferrying duty following graduation. Scott was then assigned to Palm Springs for pursuit (fighter) aircraft training. The Oroville Airport is named in honor of Dorothy F. Scott.