Marianna, AR Sightseeing Plane Crashes, Oct 1940

SIX PERSONS DIE WHEN PLANE TANGLES WITH PARACHUTE.

SHROUDS CATCH WING; PILOT LOSES CONTROL.

SIGHTSEEING CRAFT APPROACHES JUMPER TOO CLOSE.

Marianna, Ark., Oct. 20. -- (AP) -- Six persons were killed near here today as a sightseeing plane became tangled in the shrouds of a stunt man's parachute and plunged 500 feet to the earth.
The plane had gone aloft carrying the pilot and four passengers to get a close up of the parachute jump. The shrouds caught the wing, causing the pilot to lose control.
Sheriff S. C. Langston said the dead were:
PAUL NALEJAWA, about 30, of Browerville, Minn., the parachute jumper.
GEORGE ZORN, the pilot, about 30, of Greenville, Miss.
LAWRENCE DE MARKE, about 30, a Marianna laundry owner, a passenger.
PAUL BOWIE, about 35, a passenger, former marshal at Brickeys.
J. M. COOK, about 55, a passenger, a plantation owner who lived near Marianna.
JOE CAMPBELL, about 22, of Forrest City, a passenger.
L. J. Dupuy, a Marianna photographer who witnessed the accident, declared that NALEJAWA jumped from a plane piloted by Dick Roverson at an altitude of about 3,000 feet and that ZORN'S plane began slowly circling the descending parachute.
"All of a sudden," said Dupuy, "a wing of the plane became tangled in the parachute about 500 feet above the ground. The parachute jumper was tossed across the plane and was dangling helplessly from the side of the machine as it crashed to earth. Everyone in the accident was killed instantly."
Although the air show, held at a private field, was billed as "Ace Lillard's Flying Circus," Sheriff Langston said, Lillard and a crew of stunt men gave a "ground show" trick riding in automobiles.
NALEJAWA was billed as making his 181st jump when he went aloft.

Montana Standard Butte 1940-10-21
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!