Roy Halladay's wife didn't want him to get his pilot's license when the former pitcher first discussed the idea.
Brandy Halladay said in an ICON Aircraft promotional video that she was opposed to her husband flying a plane. Halladay, 40, died Tuesday when his single-engine plane crashed in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Hard. I fought hard. I was very against it," Brandy Halladay said in the video, which was removed from YouTube hours after Halladay's crash.
"She's fought me the whole way," said Roy Halladay, who got his pilot license in 2016.
Halladay's plane was the A5, and the video showed that he had No. 01 out of 100 founder's editions.
In the video, Halladay explained that his father was a corporate pilot, and that he always wanted to get his own pilot's license. But he put that idea on hold because of his baseball career.
His 16-year career began in 1998 with the Toronto Blue Jays, and he spent four seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies before retiring in 2013. He was a two-time Cy Young winner and only the second pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the postseason.
ICON Aircraft released a statement to ESPN on Tuesday night in response to Halladay's death:
"We were devastated to learn that former MLB pitcher Roy Halladay died today in an accident involving an ICON A5 in the Gulf of Mexico. We have gotten to know Roy and his family in recent months, and he was a great advocate and friend of ours. The entire ICON community would like to pass on our deepest condolences to Roy's family and friends. ICON will do everything it can to support the accident investigation going forward and we will comment further when more information is available."
On the company's website, a description of the A5 said it included a safety feature called "Complete Aircraft Parachute."
It reads: "CAP technology has more than 300 documented lives saved, some at altitudes as low as a few hundred feet. So if you encounter the unexpected, we’ve got you covered. Literally."
