Tuskegee Airman pilot dies at 92

Discovering a Tuskegee Airmen's WWII biplane

NEW YORK -- A former member of the pioneering black aviation unit the Tuskegee Airmen has died at age 92.

Audley Coulthurst’s daughter, Audra Coulthurst, says her father died Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest at VA facility in Brooklyn.

Coulthurst enlisted in the Army in 1942 and became one of America’s first black military pilots. 

Although they faced discrimination in a segregated military, the Tuskegee Airmen were among the World War II’s most respected fighter squadrons.

Audra Coulthurst says that after the war her father became a certified public account and served as controller of the National Urban League.

Capt. Andrew D. Turner of the Tuskegee Airmen is seen in his P-51 Mustang cockpit before taking off from a base in Italy, c. 1944. AP Photo

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife, Matilda Coulthurst, and a son, Jeffrey Coulthurst.

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