Kansas, Kansan makes pilgrimage to the divide 50 years after WSU football plane Robert and Sandra Denton, both residents of Williamsburg, Mich., Clare, Mich., and The Villages, Fla., were flying in their single . It was spring 1967, the era of the Vietnam War and the draft, and there weren't a lot of kids from Ste. 1984-2012. McPherson County, It was such a humbling and heart-felt experience. working for 17 years at The Wichita Eagle. Emily's siblings called 911. Lewis leg was so badly damaged, his foot was hanging sideways. Frish, a 2019 Wichita State graduate with a major in media arts and film-making, helped Fifty years later, looking back on her days working in the psychology office, Diane Buatte would say, "That job probably saved my life.". Oct. 2, 1970. Wichita State had begun the year 0-3 and was scheduled to resume play against Arkansas, ranked ninth in the country and still in the race for the national championship. One of those first nights after her diagnosis, Emily was afraid that if she went to sleep, she would never wake up. The blazes finally died out several hours later. But after A roadside memorial plaque listing the names of the victims is located near the Colorado crash site, adjacent to westbound Interstate 70. UPON HER BIRTH in February 1971, the sweet secret of the Wichita lineman was named Valory. Lewis takes a list with him onto the deck. But Featherstone was winning a hot and heavy game of spades; he wanted to see it through. ", Her family wanted her close to a major hospital while she took it easy. Its like a grandpa Stephens would never know how he had escaped and survived. "So we got out the maps -- 'Where's Wichita?'" She wasn't done. Somehow, "Our lives were so intertwined. A memorial service will be staged in Cessna Stadium, which has remained even though Wichita State dropped football in 1987. We started dividing up assignments. They hadn't even told their parents yet. Wichita State Crash Survivor Relives Details - The Oklahoman Crash site an important memorial for 'Gold Plane' family - Clear Creek Courant Triumph and tragedy: Scotties grad Barkell starred at Wichita State, recalls plane crash - Herald-Standard Ron Johnson, 21, Kansas City, Mo., Senior S I wanted to live where he grew up," she says, yearning for more time in Ste. seen flickers of smoke and fire. Oconee Co plane crash victims identified - WGAU On Saturday, Nov. 14, 1970, a plane carrying members of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team and coaching staff crashed in West Virginia killing all 75 people on board and. KMUW is still available on 89.1 fm. It was a cold Saturday morning--January 16, 1965. Her eyes are very much his," Diane says. Just like Mal Kimmel, Jack Vetter was 21 years old. She would finally retire as a professor in the MSU Education Department after the pandemic-altered spring semester in 2020, to the house in Nixa she shares with her husband, just across a horse pasture from Valory and her family. family. Diane went on to receive a doctorate in early childhood education from Missouri and would spend more than 40 years as an educator, teaching night classes at Missouri State beginning in 1979 while working as a speech pathologist and administrator in the Springfield public schools. Rockhurst University promised to honor her scholarship. She was given mouth-to-mouth. Wichita State players remember their 'second season' 50 years later (8:03), Three generations later, the secrets of Wichita State's devastating plane crash are still unfolding, What's going on at Colorado? To get plenty of manpower to Utah, WSU chartered two planes and crews from Oklahoma City-based Golden Eagle Aviation Company, with each plane holding some forty people. Her skin was mottled; she began to turn blue. He was a chick magnet. "It is a haunting experience to go up there," Stephens says. Just before the plane smashed into the mountainside at more than 110 mph, before he was flung to the cabin floor and lost consciousness, Rick Stephens glanced where he had been sitting and saw Mal Kimmel, eyes closed, asleep. Likewise, the valley was too narrow to reverse direction, as Skipper had first attempted. Mike Bruce John Hoheisel Randy Jackson Glenn Kostal David Lewis Keith Morrison Bob Renner I wasnt only a Shocker beat writer, I was a Shocker alum.. The Associated The fire deterred those looking to return for people still trapped in the plane. We knew there were two planes. A1, A2. "[They] were about football practice, pretty much," she says. I decided I better head back to my seat and when I turned around, I fell to the media, always with the goal of honoring their teammates. We wanted to do a story that was anything that was different from what we had read Suits were also pending in federal court on grounds that the FAA erroneously certified the plane as airworthy. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. he ended up about 40 yards away from the aircraft. (8:03). down the hill to get help. Bethel along Colorados Continental Divide, killing thirty-one passengers. They think about the survivors and the victims around October Survivors such as It was determined that significant responsibility lay with the FAA for failing to follow on its warnings issued to schools, including WSU, against using Golden Eagles services. National Honor Society member.. USA, Oklahoma City, They noticed a phone. The plane now bound for the high mountains of the Continental Divide carried WSU athletic director Bert Katzenmeyer, head coach Ben Wilson, Kansas state legislator Carl Fahrbach, the universitys admissions director, several of their wives, ticket manager Floyd Farmer, and twenty-two starting players. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. So instead of quitting school, Diane had Valory and returned to WSU, with one of her sisters helping her out with the baby. Pilot Danny Crocker and copilot Ronald Skipper did not file a flight plan. Maybe he's just stunned and they haven't found him yet, she thought. Illinois, She raised money for Johns Hopkins and did interviews to promote awareness of ARVC in young athletes. Arkansas, Two planes carried the team, but which crashed? Diane and Valory returned to Wichita State in 1990, 20 years after the crash, for a commemoration on campus. SI Memorials - Projects from me when I step on a plane. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. Climbing over Jack Vetter, the blond offensive lineman in the aisle seat, Stephens decided to visit the flight deck, as he'd done on earlier trips, and chat with the pilots. To most questions, he replied I dont recall. Eventually, it was determined that the plane was carrying more weight than it could handle and that the engines lacked sufficient power for a quick gain of altitude. away. to realization that we had stopped, there was a kind of surrealness about the situation. Lewis doesnt know how far he got before those miners found him. Keith Morrison, one of the nine survivors, had some vivid memories of the moments before the crash How journalists remember 1970 WSU plane crash | Wichita State News She started her work on the story as a personal matter. Funding for the memorial . It was both a wry prophecy and a tribute to her late father, whom she seemed to favor. So much time has gone by now, Paul and Kelly's cousin Martin was a team equipment manager who died in the crash. Potter, T. (1995, October 3). WSU team members, students remember fatal The great memories and friendships you develop with your teammates. at Wichita State in October, no matter where you are. about was the crash.. Wichita State University Remembers Victims And Survivors On 50th - KMUW At 1:14 pm, highway workers saw the plane dip and strike the side of Mt. Juhnke, a 2004 graduate who majored in electronic media, served as co-producer for "Black and Gold Remembering the WSU Plane Crash" in 2009. Dave Lewis dug up a small pine tree and replanted it in his Overland Park yard. Mal's parents thought she should come home to Ste. NTSB Aviation Accident Database & Synopses Kennedy It led to one of the more unlikely games in college . "There was not a dry eye in the gym," Diane says. When the aircrafts stopped for fueling in Denver, the players stretched their legs on the tarmac. She had ARVC, a rare heart condition linked to multiple cases of sudden death in young athletes immediately after intense physical activity -- a condition usually undiagnosed until their autopsies. He loved his horse, Star. The starters generally flew on the gold plane, but Featherstone mistakenly still was assigned to the black plane for the trip. of talking to a lot of them was really inspiring.. Wichita State football is gone. USA, Hesston, you never met.. of those events.. There was never a cross word said between us.. Lewis was lying on the ground when he realized all his clothes were gone, shorn off by the trees. As Wichita State sophomores, both had made the starting lineup the week of the Utah State game. Having Rick back in that spot Stephens County, Remembering the 31 - Wichita State Athletics Stadium and remembers answering questions about football. Greenwood County, ", Valory grew up strong, confident -- and, she says, fascinated by "everything, everything" about the man whose shirts her mother sometimes wore and whose photograph was in the living room. Wichita Airplane Crash 1965 - Kansas Historical Society We dropped that quickly. "Our fans gave 'em a standing ovation," recalls Chuck Dicus, an All-American receiver and game captain that night for the Razorbacks. hitting the trees. Mike Kennedy remembers when the paper bearing the Associated Press bulletin came over with filming and production of the 9-minute video. Stephens was thrown out of the plane, landing in front of it. Because he had flash burns on his "I feel like he looks out for us," Valory says. Her team wore the letter "E" for Emily on their jerseys. The project began in May 2007 and the dedication ceremony was held on July 14, 2007. was seated in the back of the plane along with most of the other survivors. Wichita State University held a memorial service at Cessna Stadium on Friday honoring both the victims and survivors of a plane crash 50 years ago. "So my whole family got tested." It was melancholy, but also uplifting USA, Plot info: Block 34, Lot 22, Space 1 Owned by Roberta Grooms, Plot info: Block 34, Lot 22, Space 1B Owned by Roberta Grooms, Argonia, the stories of the families of the victims, the survivors and their struggles, and It was WSU co-captain John Hoheisel, who'd been injured in the crash, slowly making his way to the middle of the field -- an image of Wichita grit in the aftermath of tragedy that ran in sports sections coast to coast. Valory opened the door of the condo just as Emily lost consciousness. NTSB-AAR-71-4 (Washington, DC: National Transportation Safety Board, 1970). Bethel, exploding twice on the slope. The Shockers were flying to Logan, Utah for a game the USA, Plot info: Addition 1, Block 27, Lot 9, Space 5. John, we thank you.". Wichita State suffers one of the greatest tragedies in college football history when one of the team's two charter flights crashes en route to its game at Utah State. see if it was possible to find out which plane it was.. Its been 50 years since the Shockers flew out for Logan, Utah, and a game against Utah State. Survivor of WSU crash returns, finally feels grief. Ahead stood the Continental Divide, nearly 13,000 feet above sea level. Traveling in . I look up there and think of them.. Who won the spring transfer cycle? We have this morning the names of the two people killed in Wednesday's plane crash in Oconee County: Robert and Sandra Denton were from Michigan. Christian sat two rows ahead of Lewis. It made me really proud to be an alumni, he said. He felt humbled by the work and the expressions of pain and sadness he he said. She started the reporting for a class project and later expanded her work Eventually, a movie was made. Some of them, such as Kennedy and former Wichita Eagle columnist Bob Lutz, lived through the crash and its aftermath. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. USA, Clinton, A flight attendant spilled the refreshments she was carrying. The Marshall crash seemed to overshadow the Wichita State crash. The Years drive a wedge between survivors linked USA, Henry, What No. Her buzzer-beater off the glass drove the crowd into a frenzy. But Crocker seized the controls and began a left turn. There was no blue sky visible out the windows of the cockpit, only the green and brown of the surrounding terrain. "I honor their memory every day," Lewis said. Featherstone grew up with Duren. Juhnke grew up in Wichita and his parents attended Wichita State. Even as the players in Wichita reviewed their scouting reports on the Razorbacks, the National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the crash was being held within walking distance of Cessna Stadium. He writes about applied learning and covers and I wanted to bring that to my piece, Beckman said. I didnt feel like I could understand the impact of the story without being there, And then she waved goodbye. The Black Plane, with the team's reserves and assistant coaches on board, took a direct route to Logan. In 2016, Lewis wrote an essay for The Eagle titled This tragedy did not define me.. The Denver Post, pp. by tragedy. Then another, and --, "I guess I was clocked out for the scary part," Emily says. When I look back at my 11 years in The Eagle, I, in a lot of ways, consider that While we mourn those we lost that day, we also focus on those who survived the crash. On Oct. 2, 1970, Wichita State sent its football team in two planes to a game at Utah State. phone interviews with Plopa and Yeros, led to an interview with Stephens for WSU TV in 2018.