‘He was the person you always wanted to fly with’
Friends and family remember Neil Lunt
Dedicated, funny, genuine, determined.
Meticulous, enthusiastic, loving.
These are a few ways to sum up the amazing life and personality of Neil Lunt, a career pilot who was killed in a plane crash over Lake Coeur d’Alene on July 5, 2020.
“He loved life, he loved flying, he loved his family, his football and his Isle of Man. He had a real zest for life,” said Josh Nance, his brother-in-law.
Neil wanted to be a pilot from a young age. Growing up on the small British Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, he dreamed of flying, but had no clear path to becoming an aviator. It was his insatiable, insistent and bulldog determination that brought him to the USA to learn to fly. Here, he earned four licenses in a year, almost unheard of, and was instructing students of his own in 15 months. His personality and teaching ability is still legendary in Orange County, California. He clearly had a gift for aviation and teaching, remaining close with so many of his students.
Neil spent five years teaching before he earned a job flying for a small airline in Orange County where he flew for 18 months. When that airline went bankrupt, he went to work for SkyWest Airlines where he continued to build his impressive legacy. At SkyWest he upgraded to captain in a short 18 months and then became a check airman, also known as a teaching/training pilot. He earned a stellar reputation as a check airman.
Neil met the love of his life, Anne, a fellow pilot, while training her at SkyWest.
“He was amazing,” Anne said. “He changed my perception of my ability and aviation in three short days. I arrived at SkyWest with more than 3,000 hours of flight experience in many fields, and in those three days Neil gave me confidence for which I had been searching for over four years. That confidence has guided me my whole career.
“Not only did he teach, but also he helped me reach my greatest ability by giving me confidence. I flew with Neil hundreds of times after that and was constantly impressed with this cool, confident, decision-making, raw ability and kind leadership. I cannot count the number of people who told me in the 11 years I flew for SkyWest that Neil was the best captain with whom they had ever flown. In his passing, that number of people saying the same thing continues to grow. Neil spent 20 years flying for SkyWest in three aircraft types, teaching hundreds of pilots and inspiring nearly everyone he met. I know. I was one of them.”
During that time, he accumulated more than 18,000 accident and incident-free hours flying for SkyWest. He faced countless challenges, which he handled with grace and decisive action.
While Neil had served the airline flying well, his heart and soul were seeking more. He had always wanted to run his own flying business. By this point, he had 27 years of commercial flying and 21,000 hours.
“In 2018, we bought Brooks Seaplanes so he could reach that goal and fulfill his soul,” Anne said. “He worked harder than I have ever seen a person work. He brought joy to thousands, tapping into his teaching, training and sharing his love of airplanes with those who sought such adventure.
“Neil made dreams come true and let people touch the sky and kiss the water. Neil had the utmost respect for safety, the power of airplanes and the dynamic environment that is aviation, and he took it incredibly seriously.”
“I can’t even put into words how wonderful of a man Neil was,” said Anne’s friend, Sherri Ginger. “He and Anne had one of the most loving marriages that I have ever witnessed. Their love for each other and friendship was one people search an entire lifetime for. They are the couple that always came to mind when I thought about the lifelong relationship I wanted to mirror. I know he would say, don’t go another day without telling those you love how much they mean to you.”
“What a man Neil was, someone who could sweep my precious daughter off her feet like he did, and change her whole life for him,” said Jim Nance, retired American Airlines pilot and Anne’s dad. “He was all that and more. I’m so proud he was a member of our family.”
“The first time we flew together on Lake Coeur d’Alene, he was constantly telling me, watch out for people on the water,” he said. “He couldn’t have been more cautious. I was so impressed by the way he focused on safety.”
“I got into aviation because of him,” said Alastair Lunt, Neil’s nephew. “He’s been so encouraging along the way. He really has felt like so much more than just an uncle to me throughout my life, more like a brother or a second dad. I will continue to follow my aviation path as he showed me.”
Alastair flew with Neil in his seaplane. “When I took the controls, he said, ‘Organize yourself in this plane. Make sure everything is stable.’ Even though he hadn’t taught for years, it was all right there. He stuck to the route that had been flown for 47 years before him, stuck to what he knew, stuck to what was safe.”
Josh Nance, Anne’s brother, has more great memories of Neil. Josh has 15,000 hours as a pilot in a variety of airplanes and currently flies for Frontier Airlines.
“We flew my Cessna 180 together in Alaska when he came up to visit us in Palmer, Alaska,” Josh said. “On his first visit, he sat me down and said, ‘Get out a map, I want to see where we’re going.’ So Neil studied the map and said, ‘What if we lose the engine here, or there?’ And I said, ‘Neil, this is Alaska, the closest airport is the one we’re flying out of.’ He was concerned about the terrain we were flying over, and the altitude, and the weather. We had some wonderful flights together there, and it was very much a crew environment in the airplane, two professionals. I loved it. You fly over the glaciers and you’re in Prince William Sound, one of the most spectacular routes I have ever seen.”
When you ask people who know Neil about the funny side of his personality, they say, “How much time do you have?”
“He could make a Dad joke out of anything, and joke a million miles an hour,” Alastair said. “He would see the funny side in absolutely everything. His positivity was something I aspire to. At the same time, he always made sure to speak his mind and stick by his guns. He didn’t change his moral compass to satisfy someone else. He said it like it was. That was an amazingly endearing thing about him.”
“Neil had a fantastic sense of humor, and he was always on,” Josh said. “But the one thing about Neil that always drew me, and other people, to him, was he was always interested in you. He made you feel like the only person there. He was genuinely interested in you, and what was happening in your life. He was a wonderful man.”
And he was a wonderful father.
“He was about as chill a dad as you could get,” said Noah Lunt, the eldest of Neil’s five children. “Our house was the one everyone wanted to be at. Pool table, pingpong table, trampoline, soccer goal in the backyard. Every weekend, we’d be in the park playing soccer. He always had us play cricket with his friends. I’d try to help him throw a football, which he was never very good at. We would wake up and watch Everton play, which was his favorite team, as disappointing as they are. He always had us work, but always made sure we had fun.”
And Noah has some especially sweet memories of the past few months.
“He did not put pressure on me to help with his flight business, he said he would hire someone else, so I could pursue my dream of being a brewer. I’ve been working in a brewery, and about three months ago, he came to visit. Even with all his knowledge, he was totally confused by all our terminology when I showed him around the brewery and what I do. He finally just said, ‘Which ones can I drink?’ So we just spent a fun day together.”
“At work, I can throw on my airpods and call him. Sometimes I’ll check the weather up here. If it’s nice I know he’s flying. I’ll ask the office to have him call me when he lands. Lately, I have had a lot of time to talk to him, that way, usually every day. I am very grateful for those talks together.”
“Neil was the love of my life and always my very best friend,” Anne said. “He made my marriage so easy and full of laughter and smiles. He was unquestionably loyal and always on my side, no matter what the circumstance. He protected me, cared for me and appreciated everything I ever did. He made certain to tell and show everyone in his life how much he loved us.”
“No matter what else he was doing, he always had the time to go out and made someone’s day very enjoyable,” Noah said. “There were no customer complaints. So many people have messaged our business and told us what a great time they had with Neil, and how big an impression he made on them, even in a 20-minute flight.”
As Skywest pilots always said, he was always the person you most wanted to fly with.
Recently, Alastair asked Neil an important question, and got the best answer of all.
“I asked him, knowing the stress which must come from running a small business, ‘Do you still love it up here?’ Without hesitation, he turned to me with a smile on his face, and said, ‘Absolutely, I love every bit of it.’”
That grin, that enthusiasm and that passion is an incredible legacy indeed.
•••
To friends of Neil Lunt and Brooks Seaplane Service:
The Lunt family would like to extend an invitation to gather together to celebrate Neil’s life on Saturday, Aug. 1 at 5:30 p.m. at the dock on Independence Point. Please wear dignified casual clothes or Everton kit. We hope to see you there.
