A Tyler man and local business owner died Thursday after the small airplane he was piloting clipped a mobile home in the 2100 block of South Mirror Street and crashed just before 8:45 a.m., authorities said.
Ben Harned IV, 53, lived in Tyler but often flew to Amarillo because he is the owner Performance Motors of Amarillo, according to his niece Melanie Hooley McDade.
“He was one of my best friends,” said B.J. McClenan, manager of Performance Motors of Amarillo and Harned’s friend for 13 years. “He did stuff for me that no one else would. He was a great guy.”