His vast flying experience couldn’t save the life of pilot Bill Gordon III, whose World War II fighter plane went down in the Hudson River on Friday night.

Gordon’s pals said he had every pilot certification you can get.

He “didn’t mess up,” said Billy Segalla, who taught Gordon to fly in the 1980s and flew air shows with him for two decades. “Something had to have happened with the plane.” he added.

A father of two and a grandfather, Gordon, 56, lost his second wife, Susan, to cancer in November.

The wreckage of the P-47 Thunderbolt that Gordon was piloting was pulled from the river on Saturday. It was floated by barge to the Downtown Manhattan Heliport for temporary storage.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

Gordon was piloting the “warbird” for the American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport on Long Island.

The museum planned to mark the 75th anniversary of the P-47 at an air show Saturday at Jones Beach. Planes flew over the museum Saturday in a memorial “missing man” formation Saturday.

Even the crash that took his life showed evidence of Gordon’s flying experience, said Scott Klyman, a board member of the American Airpower Museum.

“He made a textbook water landing for an aircraft that had lost power,” Klyman said.

Gordon survived another crash of a vintage plane in 2009. He walked away when the replica biplane he flew from the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome upstate crashed.

In that crash, the biplane stalled at an altitude of about 300 feet, and Gordon was forced to land in a swamp.

Gordon, who ran a trucking and excavation business, is survived by a son and daughter.