U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Garrett & U.S. Navy Lt. Ross

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Picture taken shortly after the accident.

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Navy officials have released the names of the two-person aircrew who lost their lives on Friday, Oct. 23 when the T-6B Texan II, a turboprop training airplane, crashed into a neighborhood near Magnolia Springs around 5 p.m.

Lieutenant Rhiannon Ross, 30, from Wixon, Michigan and U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Morgan Garrett, 24, from Weddington, North Carolina were on a routine training flight when their aircraft went down on Mansion Street in Foley, near County Road 55. As of Monday, Oct. 26, the cause of the accident has not been released. No civilians were injured due to the crash, though one residency caught fire as a result.

The U.S. Navy confirmed Lieutenant Ross was serving as the instructor on the flight, while U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Garrett was a student aviator. Garrett was a 2019 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Lieutenant Ross was commissioned as a Navy officer in 2012. They were part of the VT-2 Doerbirds training squadron.

The crew took off from Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Florida, on a routine training flight earlier that day. Local and Navy emergency personnel responded to the scene of the accident and are working together to investigate the incident.

In a Sunday post on the VT-2 squadron’s Facebook page, U.S. Navy Commander Wes Barnes posted: “Our sincerest condolences and prayers go out to the family members who have suffered this tremendous loss. I cannot express the devastation we all feel at this time.”