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A third victim in last week’s mid-air collision over Washington, D.C., has been identified as a person with deep ties to the state of Georgia.
What we know:
According to The Baltimore Banner, 53-year-old Brian Ellis was aboard an American Airlines flight when it collided with a military helicopter. Ellis, who lived in Virginia, was returning home from a work trip in Kansas at the time of the incident.
The backstory:
Ellis graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1993, where he played football, according to the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association. Before his military career, Ellis attended Morrow High School in Georgia, where he was a standout quarterback and a talented trombone player, classmates and a former teacher recalled.
Ellis spent 22 years in the Marine Corps, mostly as a helicopter pilot and achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel, before retiring in 2015. At the time of his death, he was employed by …