NYC Aviation Co-Founder Passes Away
I spent this afternoon at New York JFK Airport’s Terminal 8 with a number of journalists, bloggers and airline corporate communications people discussing airlines, airplanes, new liveries, mergers and every other related topic, favourite topics of Matt Molnar, co-founder of the popular aviation site NYCAviation.com. Many of the people I was with at JFK Airport knew Matt or at the very least conversed with Matt, but seemingly there was something none of us knew … that Matt had tragically and suddenly passed away last night in Brooklyn.
Had any of us known of Matt’s passing the conversations we were having would surely have turned to discussing him. I had only met Matt a few times, but we conversed somewhat often over the past few years, discussing exactly what you’d expect, airlines, aviation and airplanes.
Matt, along with Phil Derner Jr, built a fantastic community for New York airline and aviation enthusiast that spread far beyond New York. His dedication to NYCAviation.com helped push the site from a community to a well respected news source for the industry. His insight, opinions and humour were always a welcome by those who cover the industry and those who follow the industry.
I am not much for obituaries … but Matt will certainly be missed. Matt was only 33.
Next time you see a plane fly overhead take a moment to watch it until it disappears from view, if for no other reason than a great Aviation Geek is no longer here to do it himself.
Happy Flying Matt, wherever you are.
Thank you so much for your post. The outpouring of support is so warming in seeing how many people Matt was able to touch in a mere 33 years.
He became, at least for me, a name behind NYCAviation at the time of the unveiling of the Sunrise 747-8i — he had great photographic coverage on Flickr. I’m sure there will by many around the world who’ll have appreciated his work – passion. Spread those those wings, and soar fellow Geek.
Said photographs were shot by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren*
Sad news, indeed.