State College, PA Private Plane Crash, Jan 1953

FOUR KILLED IN PLANE CRASH AT STATE COLLEGE.

State College (AP) -- Three food executives and a 4-year-old woman, en route to the national potato chip convention in New York City, were killed yesterday when their private plane crashed in an orchard near here while attempting to make an emergency landing.
State police identified the victims as:
MISS IRENE L. GARDNER, South Bend, Ind., a room clerk for the Hoffman Hotel, South Bend.
JOSEPH E. GRAVES, 37, of Springfield, Ill., pilot of the plane and president of Jack's Foods, Inc., South Bend, and of Tasty Foods, Inc., Kansas City, Kan.
WYLAND MILLER, 35, Kansas City Kan., vice president and general manager of the Kansas firm.
DARVIN F. ROSEBROOK, 36, South Bend, secretary-treasurer of both the South Bend and Kansas City Firms.
The single-engine four-passenger plane which was almost out of gas according to investigating state police, crashed as it approached the airport runway at this Central Pennsylvania community. The plane clipped off the trunk of a tree in the orchard and plowed into a mudhole beside a hog pen.
"The plane was making a sharp left turn away from the runway of the airport when it went into a dive about 100 feet off the ground," eyewitness VIRGIL NEILLY of State College told state police.
Another unnamed eyewitness was quoted by the police as saying the engine quit just before the crash, indicating the gasoline supply may have been exhausted.
A few minutes before the crash the pilot of the plane contacted the nearby Phillipsburg Airport and reported he was lost and had only 10 minutes gas supply left.

Gazette And Bulletin Williamsport Pennsylvania 1953-01-27
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!