Five men including the pilot, a one-time Blairite, perished Saturday night when their Sioux City bound airplane crashed into the hillside at Decatur during heavy fog at night. Three of the dead were Iowa soldiers from Fort Leonard Wood, MO, who were being flown to Sioux City in route home on 36-hour passes. The pilot was Howard Campbell, 45, veteran aviator, who had friends and relatives in Blair. Mr. Campbell's parents are the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles Campbell of Blair. Wayne Therkelsen of Blair is a cousin of the dead pilot.

The plane left Columbia, Missouri, at 5:15 p.m. Saturday. It passed over Omaha at 7:19 p.m. and Campbell asked the CAA tower about the weather around Sioux City. He was advised that it was bad. Several persons reported hearing a plane flying over Blair during a rain and fog period. Campbell, it was theorized, had been trying vainly to locate the Blair Airport or was getting his directions before flying onto Sioux City. Just north of Blair the plane hit heavy fog that was the last heard from it. Rural line calls, emergency calls, which contact all farm folks, were put out from Blair northward a short time later Saturday night, but no search for the plane was possible due to both the weather and road conditions. Pilots stood by the Blair Airport Sunday to begin aerial searches, but by the time the fog lifted here, from Decatur General Eagleton, cousin of Dr. Eagleton of Blair, located the wrecked plane by flying over the scene. That was Sunday afternoon. It was estimated that the plane, a twin engine Cessna, hit the side of the hill while traveling something like a 150 miles an hour. Friends here said that Campbell, who often visited the Blair Field, a veteran pilot, was a cautious flier and theorized that he probably would have landed at Omaha, but possibly his fares urged him to take a chance on reaching Sioux City safely.

Pilot Tribune March 8 1951 Blair, Nebraska paper page 1

Pilot of Ill-fated Plane Buried here

Burial was in Blair Cemetery last Thursday morning for Howard Campbell, 45, pilot of the private plane which crashed at Decatur Feb. 24, with the loss of five lives during a heavy fog.

Mr. Campbell was the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles Campbell of Blair.

~~~Obituary courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska. ~~~

FindaGrave # 113534291