Verne Wiggin, 96 and in hospice, flew a plane over Tulsa on Monday for the first time since 1988. His nurses arranged it.

Verne Wiggin flew for decades as a private pilot and last took the controls in 1988. In hospice at 96, he kept saying he wanted to go up once more, so his nurses found a pilot with a plane to spare.

16 September 2026

A bald man in his nineties in sunglasses and a checked shirt sits in the left seat of a small plane, the instrument panel beside him, with people visible through the cockpit window on the tarmac outside
Verne Wiggin in the Piper Cherokee at Tulsa Riverside Airport on Monday, before the flight.
Photo: News On 6

A 96-year-old hospice patient in Tulsa flew a plane on Monday for the first time since 1988, after his nurses decided that his wish to go up once more was something they could arrange, News On 6 reported. Verne Wiggin took the controls of a borrowed Piper Cherokee 140 at Tulsa Riverside Airport, with his family and the nurses watching from the ground, and flew it around Keystone Lake and up to Skiatook Lake.

An elderly man pushes a walker across an airport apron with a woman at his side and nurses in blue scrubs walking alongside, hangars behind
Verne crossing the apron with his walker, his nurses alongside.
Photo: News On 6

Verne spent decades in the air as a private pilot and served in the Civil Air Patrol, and he also worked as a minister. He and his wife, Grace, had seven children. He has been flying since his twenties, and the last time he piloted a plane was in 1988, though he flew as a passenger ten or fifteen years ago.

An old colour photograph of a young man in a dark jacket and a woman holding a baby, standing beside the nose and propeller of a small red-and-white plane on grass
Verne Wiggin as a young man beside a plane, from a family photograph shown in the report.
Photo: family photograph, via News On 6

In hospice he talked about flying all the time, his nurses said, and told them he just wanted to go up one more time. “He told me,” Nanci Virtuoso, a nurse with Seasons Hospice, said. “And so I sent his social worker a message, and he said, ‘How am I supposed to make that happen?’ I said, ‘We’ll figure it out.’ And here we are.”

Two women in dark blue hospice uniforms with name badges stand in front of an American flag and a wall mural, one dark-haired, one blonde, both smiling
Verne’s nurses, Nanci Virtuoso and Cindy Nichols of Seasons Hospice.
Photo: News On 6

Monday

Before the flight there was a pause for prayer on the ground at Riverside, with Verne in a chair beside the plane and his family and the nurses around him. “He’s been talking about it for weeks,” his daughter Martha Vandiver said. “He’s had a really good run for it in his life. I think that’s why this means so much.”

An elderly man in a chair beside a small plane, surrounded by women in hospice uniforms and family members with heads bowed and hands on his shoulders
The prayer beside the plane before take-off.
Photo: News On 6

The plane belonged to Jorge Delgado, a local pilot whose Piper Cherokee 140 has a dual control setup, so that Verne could fly from his seat while Delgado sat beside him. “I said, okay, Verne, it’s your plane,” Delgado said. “And then he just started flying. We went around Keystone. Then he took me up to Skiatook Lake.”

Two men in aviation headsets and sunglasses in the cockpit of a small plane in flight, the older man in a checked shirt on the left, the pilot in a grey polo on the right
Verne and Jorge Delgado in the air.
Photo: News On 6

“I hope somebody does the same thing for me when I can’t fly anymore,” Delgado said. “I can tell you, out of my career, this is probably the most rewarding thing I’ve done. And if he wants to do it again, Verne, we can go any time you want.”

A small white plane with a red stripe lifts off a runway over green grass, seen from above
The Piper leaving the runway at Riverside.
Photo: News On 6

After landing

“Impossible,” Verne said after landing. “It just doesn’t seem possible. And certainly, appreciate everyone’s effort in making this day possible.” Back on the ground he offered some advice: “Don’t quit. Be adventurous.”

His nurses described him the same way, one after the other. “He’s so sweet and stubborn,” Virtuoso said. “Yes. Sweet and stubborn,” Cindy Nichols said. Verne turns 97 on 3 October.

I said, okay, Verne, it’s your plane. And then he just started flying.Jorge Delgado, to News On 6

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Written from the reporting of Amy Slanchik for News On 6, Tulsa, 14 September 2026. The photographs are frames from News On 6’s report; the frames from the video are small because the station publishes it at that size.

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