Former Somerset County CCC Youth Killed When Stolen Plane Crashes

By United Press.

SOMERSET, July 6 - An attempt to fly an allegedly stolen plane after he had only a few hours of instruction in flying today caused the death of Willard Beers, 20, of Drums, Luzerne County.

He died in Somerset Hospital at 1 o'clock this afternoon, seven hours after the cabin plane he attempted to fly crashed a block and a half from the courthouse here.

District Attorney A. M. Matthews said the plane had been stolen from Somerset Airport shortly before the crash.

Beers formerly was stationed at a CCC camp here but since his discharge from the CCC, he had spent considerable time at the airfield. Authorities said he had had a few hours instruction in flying but never had flown solo.

Sunday night he told Al Young, an instructor at the field, that he had a job in New Jersey and was leaving. His packed suitcase was found in the wreckage of the plane, leading officers to believe that he was attempting to fly the plane to New Jersey.

Beers was forced to move five other airplanes from the hangar before he got to the cabin plane he decided to take, it was said. It was owned by Robert Mostoller and Warren Fite, Somerset men.

Beers placed his luggage in the airplane and took off. After the ship had gone about a mile, Beers apparently became befuddled and didn't know what to do. The craft came down, crashing into a barn at the rear of the J. P Umberger home on Fuller avenue, being destroyed. The ship had a value of $6,000.

The mishap occurred back of a laundry in the residential district near North Center avenue, near the business district.

The Daily Courier, Connellsville, PA 6 Jul, 1937
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BODY OF PLANE VICTIM CLAIMED BY HIS MOTHER

SOMERSET, July 7. - The body of 19-year-old William Beers, former CCC enrollee, fatally hurt in an airplane crash, was removed last night to his home at Drums, near Hazelton, for burial.

The young man's mother, Mrs. Florence Beers, appeared in Somerset yesterday afternoon and made arrangements for removal of the body to Drums from the Charles R. Hauger mortuary.

Beers died in Community Hospital shortly before 1 P. M. yesterday from injuries he received when an airplane he had taken from the Somerset Airport without the consent of the owner crashed on the roof of a barn and toppled 25 feet into Court alley at 5:30 A. M. yesterday.

He suffered fractures of several ribs, collar bone, right ankle and right leg and lacerations of the neck and chin. One finger was amputated. Identity was made by papers found on his person.

The Daily Courier, Connellsville, PA 7 Jul 1937
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!