A young Peninsula man with a passion for flying was killed last week in a crash at a Colorado airport.
Niles Tilenius, 22, of Hillsborough, was identified Monday, Oct. 27, by the Weld County coroner’s office as one of two men who died in the crash. The other was William Johnston, 21, of Hillsborough County, Florida.
The crash happened around 3:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at Erie Municipal Airport, about 10 miles east of Boulder. The two men were in an ultralight single-engine plane — a JMB VL-3 — that had been making touch-and-go landings, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Tilenius worked as a flight instructor in Erie, and had previously taught flying in the Bay Area, according to his LinkedIn profile. An online obituary said he was to start a job next month as a commercial pilot with GoJet, which flies regional routes for United Express.
Tilenius graduated in 2021 from Crystal Springs Uplands School, where he was a member of the cross-country and track teams and a percussionist in the jazz band. He went on to Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio, and continued his cross-country career there. After a year and a half of college, he put his education on pause to focus on flying, the obituary said.
A funeral will be held Thursday, Oct. 30, at Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo; the family plans a larger memorial service in the coming months, the obituary said.
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