Note: veteran Former Arlington Resident In Brazilian Jet Plane Crash

A former Arlington resident, Walter H. Echtenkamp, Jr. 39, son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Ectenkamp. Sr., of Seattle, Washington, was one of 97 persons killed when a Brazilian jet airliner on its way to Los Angeles crashed and burned near Lima, Peru on Nov. 27.

The Boeing 707 was within minutes of landing in Lima, when the captain radioed “This is an emergency.” He gave no indication of a cause for the crash. According to the authorities at Lima’s International Airport, the pilot had radioed normal position, 12, 000 feet, near the Pacific and asked clearance to land. The plane was scheduled to land at 3:30 a.m. E.S.T. Ten hours later, the plane’s wreckage was found. The 97 persons aboard apparently met death instantly. The crash took place before dawn on a barren hilltop and was noted as aviation’s eighth worst disaster.

Mr. Echtenkamp’s mother said she had awakened during the night with a premonition of disaster. “I woke up thinking of how many plane crashes there have been lately and I just had to say a prayer for his safe journey home.” In an effort to forget about this, Mrs. Echtenkamp went Christmas shopping the next day. When she was shopping, she saw a newspaper headling “97 Killed in Peru 707 Crash.” “Every time I haven’t listened to my intuition, I was wrong” she said.

Mr. Echtenkamp was a project engineer at a cement factory the H.K. Ferguson Co. was building in Salta, Argentina. He went there in July, 1961. Previously, he was a project engineer at an Atlas Missile Base in Wichita, Kansas. “He was supposed to come home last September, but he couldn’t leave because the project manager got a heart attack and he was next in charge. He telephoned us long distance then,” his mother said.

He was planning to stop in Peru and Mexico on his way home to spend the Christmas holidays with his family and friends in Seattle.

His parents stated that he knew people all over the world and that they thought Australia was the only continent he hadn’t been on.

Mr. Echtenkamp, the grandson of Mrs. Lena Echtenkamp of Arlington, was born in Arlington. After his graduation from Arlington High School in 1940, he went to Seattle. He was a graduate of the University of Washington, affiliated with the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and was house manager during his last year. He was with the Army Signal Corps for three years in New Guinea and the Philippines. He was a member of the Masonic Daylight Lodge, Scottish Rite Bodies, and Nile Temple of Shrine.

A memorial fund has been established for the Congregational Church in Arlington. Mesdames P.L. cady and C.C. Cook are in charge of this.

~~~Obituary courtesy of Washington County Genealogical Association; newspaper clippings on file at the Public Library, Blair, Nebraska ~~~