A young Peninsula man with a passion for flying was killed last week in a crash at a Colorado airport.

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Niles Tilenius, 22, of Hillsborough, was identified Monday, Oct. 27, by the Weld County coroner’s office as one of two men who died in the crash. The other was William Johnston, 21, of Hillsborough County, Florida.

The crash happened around 3:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at Erie Municipal Airport, about 10 miles east of Boulder. The two men were in an ultralight single-engine plane — a JMB VL-3 — that had been making touch-and-go landings, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

Tilenius worked as a flight instructor in Erie, and had previously taught flying in the Bay Area, according to his LinkedIn profile. An online obituary said he was

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