Wal-Mart heir John Walton, son of company founder Sam Walton, died Monday in a Wyoming plane crash, according to the company.
Walton, 58 and a Jackson resident, was piloting the ultralight that crashed shortly after takeoff from the Jackson Hole Airport in Grand Teton National Park, the company said from its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.
The cause of the crash, which occurred about 12:20 p.m., was not known.
Several people who witnessed the crash phoned emergency responders. Walton was pronounced dead at the scene, park officials said.
The plane was an experimental ultralight aircraft with a small gasoline-powered engine and wings wrapped in fabric similar to heavy-duty sail cloth, officials said.
Forbes Magazine this year listed Walton as 11th on its list of the world’s richest people with a net worth of $18.2 billion. He was tied with his brother Jim, one place behind his brother Rob and one place ahead of his sister Alice and his mother Helen.
“We’re sad that John Walton, who was well-known and much loved in this valley, died doing something that he loved to do, which was fly aircraft,” Grand Teton National Park spokeswoman Joan Anzelmo said Monday evening.
The plane apparently crashed immediately after takeoff, said Anzelmo, who was driving on the highway nearby and noticed the wreckage.
“I saw parts of it,” she said. “I didn’t realize what I was seeing at first. It was so lightweight, it looked like a giant model airplane.”
Anzelmo said officials notified the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
“Because this is a homemade, nonregistered, experimental aircraft, at least today they told us there was not going to be an investigation,” she said.
Grand Teton rangers will conduct their own probe, as is done with any major accident in the park, she said.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said the company notified its employees worldwide late Monday of Walton’s death.
Walton has been a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors since 1992.
Walton was a Vietnam veteran, serving in the U.S. Army Green Berets as a medic. He was awarded the Silver Star for saving the lives of several members of his unit while under enemy fire, according to the company. He attended the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio.
Walton is survived by his wife, Christy, and son Luke; his mother, Helen; two brothers, Rob and Jim; and a sister, Alice.
Walton was a board member of the Walton Family Foundation, which played a key role in fundraising in the University of Arkansas’ recent Campaign for the 21st Century. The Walton family made a $300 million gift to the campaign in 2002. The campaign recently reached its $1 billion fundraising goal for academic and other improvements.
The company said Walton pursued a variety of business interests, including working as a crop duster in the 1970s and a boat builder in the 1980s, and had recently formed the holding company True North.
