World’s only female Spitfire pilot killed in car crash 34 years after husband died same way

Carolyn Grace dazzled audiences for decades in her late-husband’s renovated Second World War plane

The world’s only female Spitfire pilot has died in a car crash, decades after losing her husband in the same way.

Carolyn Grace, 70, made her name with dazzling air displays in the fighter plane best known for its role in defeating the Luftwaffe in the Second World War’s Battle of Britain.

She performed at airshows for many years in ML407, a decommissioned RAF craft that offered air support during the Normandy landings, having learned how to fly the second-hand plane in tribute to her husband, Nick Grace, who died soon after he finished renovating it.