Flagler, CO Disaster At Air Show, Sep 1951

PLANE CRASH KILLS 20 AT AIR SHOW.

PRIVATE CRAFT HOOKS WING, HITS CARS IN COLORADO TOWN.

Flagler, Colo., Sept. 15 (INS) --A slow-rolling private plane, performing at an air show near Flagler, Colo., Saturday, hooked a wing on the ground and careened into a line of autos, killing 20 persons, 10 of them children.
An estimated 50 other persons were injured in the accident.
A crowd of 1000, sitting on cars, on the ground and standing, were watching a sailplane perform as the low-flying stunt plane approached the field. Only a few persons witnessed the crash.
The plane, a low-winged monoplane, piloted by 1st Lt. NORMAN L. JONES of Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, passed over the field from south to north, and went into a slow roll at low altitude.
The silver and blue low-wing monoplane hooked a wing on the ground and careened into a line of cars at the east side of the field, splintering cars, and spraying vehicles and spectators with gasoline and oil.
Authorities said the plane did not burn, and that no panic resulted amont spectators.
LT. JONES was killed in the crash. Authorities at Lowry Air Force Base said he was attached to the Student Photo Training Department of the base, and was permanently stationed at David - Monthan Air Base, Ariz.
Air show officials and volunteers moved swiftly to care for the dead and injured, who were taken to Flagler Hospital and other hospitals in the area.
A nurse from the Flagler Hospital, identified as MISS KELLEY, said of the victims taken to the hospital: "They were so cut up -- I never saw anything like it -- there was not a burn among the injuries I saw -- the people must have been sitting down because the injuries were mostly from the waist up."
Other victims were taken to hospitals at Stratton, Burlington and Denver.
Dr. John Duffy, Walsh, Colo., some 160 miles distant, rushed to the scene of the crash by air, carrying 2000 c.c.s. of blood plasma for the crash victims.
Duffy said the plasma had been received only Friday, and that at that time he told his partner,
"Lord, we'll never use all this." The plasma, however, was used quickly in treating victims of the tragedy.
Most of the victims were killed outright in the crash, and seven others died before they could be treated at a hospital.
T. GUARD, former publisher of the Flagler News, an eyewitness of the crash, declared: "No one knew what had happened at first because it occurred so fast -- some of the people stayed right on top of their cars where they had been sitting watching the show."
BOB SHAMBURG, a 42-year-old Burlington, Colo. farmer, who responded to a call for aid, said persons at the accident site "could hardly talk when I arrived ... they seemed stunned by the tragedy which had snuffed out so many lives."
He added: "It's like one of those things you see sometimes in a movie."
Mortician RALPH CLAPP, whose ambulance was one of a half-dozen vehicles smashed by the cart-wheeling plane, escaped injury because he was away from the vehicle at the time of the crash.
His wife was critically injured in the crash, and his 3 -year-old daughter SANDRA, died of injuries received in the accident.
The air show was being held in conjunction with Flagler's annual fall festival. GUARD, chairman of the festival, called the slow roll performed by the plane "an unauthorized maneuver."
Lowry Air Force Base authorities emphasized that Lt. JONES was piloting the plane on his off duty time, and was not flying on behalf of the Air Force.

Flagler, Colo., Sept. 15 (AP) -- Identified dead from the crash of a stunting plane here Saturday included:
LT. NORMAN L. JONES of Lowry Air Force Base, Denver, pilot.
HALFRED ASHER, about 60.
MRS. LOIS THOMPSON.
JOHN KELLER, 6.
ZENALDA KELLER, 14.
CORENA HARWOOD, 10.
JEAN YOKUM, 6.
JAMES BRANDENBURG.
DONALD BRANDENBURG.
CAROLINE SELENKE, 14.
TEDDY WICKHAM, 11.
MRS. CHARLES KELLER, 55.
ORA HUGHES, 8.
VIRGINIA MOSS.
JOHN HALL, 88.
MRS. CLEVE HEID, all of Flagler.
GORDON McEATHRON, 10.
BEBE McEATHRON, 13, of Arriba, Colo.
The identified injured are:
MEREDITH KYLE, 11.
PHIL HOLDEN.
MRS. EVELYN ATTY.
ANNABELLE MOSS.
VICKI CRIST, 8.
GEORGE MOORE, 7.
HARVEY DINE.
MRS. ZENALDA HEID.
MRS. RALPH CLATT.
ANN CLATT, 8.
SANDRA CLATT, 4.
PAUL YOKUM, 10, all of Flagler.
MRS. FRED CHARLES.
MRS. JAMES TRAHERN, 19.

The Salt Lake Tribune Utah 1951-09-16
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!