6 EXECUTIVES OF CHICAGO FIRM DIE IN PLANE WRECK.

TWO PILOTS ALSO KILLED AS IT TRIES FORCED LANDING IN INDIANA.

Jeffersonville, Ind. (AP) -- Six executives of a Chicago business firm and two crew members were killed Tuesday when a twin-engine company plane crashed on an Indiana farm while attempting an emergency landing.
The plane literally buried itself in muddy land.
State police said there was a remote possibility that a ninth body was buried underneath the wreckage.
An official passenger list, however, gave the names of only eight people.
Eleven minutes out of Louisville's Standiford Field, the pilot made routine radio contact with the tower, giving no indication of trouble.
A private pilot, JOHN VISSING, had telephoned police before the crash that a plane was in trouble and circling for an emergency landing.
Six of the victims were executives of the Crane Co. of Chicago, on their way to Louisville to attend a convention of the Heating, Piping and Air Conditioners National Assn. The other two were crewmen.
The company identified them as:
J. A. McMURRY, director of branches.
J. A. DWYER, vice president.
GEORGE L. ERWIN, vice president.
CHARLES E. TOWNER, assistant to the vice president in charge of heating.
G. G. LINDHOLM, a departmental manager.
FRED J. WILKEY, special representative.
RANDY MULHERIN, pilot.
ROBERT ROBINETTE, co-pilot and son-in-law of MULHERIN.
A light rain was falling but visibility was good.
The plane barely missed one farm house before it clipped the top of the trees and plunged nose-down into an open field, surrounded by several houses. The wreckage was almost directly under the tops of two sheared trees.
Witnesses said there was a "terrible explosion" when the plane hit. There was no fire.
MRS. SARAH CAIN said she heard the plane hit and that she and her husband ran out of their farm house, about 150 yards from the scene, "to see if we could pull anyone out."
But when they got there, she said, "There wasn't anyone to pull out."

Logansport Press Indiana 1956-05-16
__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!