U.S. Politicians Killed in Airplane Crashes

welcome to another episode of History Hunter's signature edition this is where I take items from my collection of autographs that I have assembled since I was a kid in 1973 to teach you a little bit about history today we're going to talk about probably an unpleasant subject I wanted to talk today about some politicians who are in my collection who died in airplane crashes and they're a lot more than you think there are I struck upon this idea when I was up in South Dakota last year and I saw a mention of George Michaelson Memorial Park and obviously it sounded like somebody important had died and indeed I didn't know anything about it George Michaelson was a 52 year old governor of South Dakota here's a signed photo of him that I recently purchased on eBay it was like 14 it was ridiculous it also came with a letter that he sent to somebody in 1992 in answer for a autograph request and he signed this letter as well him and eight others were in Ohio they were doing some kind of Economic Development attempt they were flying back on the state-owned aircraft it was a Mitsubishi mu-2 and somewhere over Dubuque Iowa they had a catastrophic engine failure something on the prop came loose it ended up flying into the cabin injuring somebody of course the pilot lost control over the aircraft it was April 19 1993 fortunately for those on the ground it was sparsely populated he was over Farm country the plane went down on a farm it went into a silo it burst into flames unfortunately everybody on board the aircraft were killed three days after the crash on April 22nd approximately 12 000 South dakotans filed past this coffin inside the capital rotunda there in Pierre South Dakota a couple of them actually had stopped to admire this large picture of the governor smiling and I just wonder if maybe it was this portrait that was hanging there next to his coffin I didn't know anything about George Michaelson he's not like a like he was a popular Governor that a lot of people really mourned the loss of and then there's a story of Ron Brown who was a U.S Secretary of Commerce under President Clinton a lot of people remember the Ron Brown Funeral because there was some video of President Clinton who was joking around with people at the funeral and then as soon as he caught a view of the camera all of a sudden you see him shedding tear and acting sad a lot of people made fun of him for that I was fortunate several years ago to get a signed photo of Ron Brown again it was just dirt cheap and I'm not sure you know why nobody was interested in this but it was a historical figure I thought that was pretty cool and there's also a letter that I got with that it was signed on Democrat National Committee letter ahead 1992. he's just answering an autograph request but there's the signature on that so what happened he was on a large aircraft he was with 35 people there were six military crew members aboard 29 civilians 33 were Americans and over Croatia the plane crashed on top of the Mountainside it was just a devastating air crash nobody survived out of all the air crashes I think the one that John Heinz went through was the one that kind of touched me the most when I was a kid I wrote to Senator Hines he was kind of considered presidential Timber at the time John Hines was a wealthy politician and he came from the Heinz Ketchup family and I wrote to him because I obviously thought he was going to be president someday this was a letter that he signed I think I probably asked him if he was going to run for president basically he's just saying I am committed to serving the people of Pennsylvania well so I may be re-elected to the senate in 1982. I'm appreciative of the opportunity to represent my fellow pennsylvanians and the United States Senate with warmer regards John Hines and it came with a signed photo a black and white signed photo that basically said best wishes John Heinz and then later I obtained another signed photo probably hitting this mic here this side photo of John Hines you know good looking young politician he certainly probably could have run for president he was a rising star in the Republican party on April 4th 1991 a series of tragic missteps led to his death Senator heis was traveling to a meeting at Philadelphia on board a twin engine Piper Aerostar plane at some point the indicator light that indicated that the landing gear had malfunctioned had gone off so they weren't sure if they could land those at the control towers that land anyway because you know you could usually survive those kind of Landings it just messes the plane up but there was a helicopter crew in the era they said you know what we'll volunteer we'll fly by we'll take a look and see if we're landing gears down well the landing gear was down they just didn't know if it was locked into place and they wouldn't have been able to tell from the air anyway so the helicopter was hovering just below on the left side and then somehow they went underneath the aircraft and it's all Theory as to what happened at that point but the two collided right over a school ground running down debris there was a six-year-old first grader who was killed by The Flaming debris and then there was a seven-year-old second grader who was severely burned things could have been far worse had either aircraft hit the school building where there were approximately 570 students the plane crashed in front of the school and the helicopter behind it clearing the roof by just inches it would have been far tragic 15 minutes later when hundreds of children would have been on the playground Senator Heinz body was identified by the band of its wrist watch and his American Express card now investigators from the national Transportation safety board later confirmed in their accident report that there is really no visual way to confirm a front landing gear is locked on an aircraft calling it an appallingly poor judgment by the pilots to accept the offer of a close visual inspection by the helicopter crew now the NTSB also criticized both flight Crews for attempting to conduct their in-flight inspection over for a densely populated area furthermore the NTSB stated that once the pilots of Senator Hines plane had visually confirmed that the gear was down by seeing it in the Reflection from the planes propeller Spinners there was no further need to inspect now the strange Twist of Faith the day after Senator Hines was killed former U.S senator John Tower who was a very powerful politician from Texas actually I wished I could tell you this was a signed photo of him but this is the auto pin the infamous Auto pin scientist so this isn't authentic I do have another one not going to get it out right now but it was on April 5th 1991. the center was with his daughter and with NASA astronauts Sonny Carter and 20 others they were in a twin engine turbo prop plane they were flying from Atlanta to Brunswick and outside the Glencoe Jet Center something catastrophic happened the aircraft went down and everybody on board was killed the national Transportation safety board investigators looked into the crash and they determined that the controller for the propeller unit actually malfunctioned it changed the angle of the blades and therefore it lost lift your profs actually change depending on how you want to fly you probably know the air traffic in Alaska is necessary because the vast amounts and the fact that there's not a lot of Road systems in Alaska the only way to get from point A to point B in Alaska is to fly so Alaska per capita has more air crashes than any other state now I want to focus my attention on Ted Stevens he was the senator from Alaska and I had written to him while he was still in office and he signed this one a ballpoint pen I'd later got another signed photo um it's made out to a David Friedman maybe you guys have heard of him I haven't says any friend of Marlo cook is a friend of mine Ted Stevens U.S senator for Alaska he was a legend in Alaskan politics and um he brought home a lot of pork barrel projects for Alaska including the bridge to nowhere he was a decorated World War II pilot in fact he had survived a 1978 plane crash it was the longest serving Republican senator in history you probably also know that the international airport in Anchorage is named after Ted Stevens so he had retired from the U.S Senate he was 86 years old him and nine others were aboard a plane it was a 1957 de Havilland DHC three otter King I had just taken off from Dillingham crashed into a hillside 17 miles north of this Alaskan fishing town it's believed that his Pilot who had suffered a stroke in 2006 had been stricken somehow and was therefore in capacitated the plane went down now also on the plane was a former NASA administrator by the name of Sean O'Keefe him and his teenage son Kevin were aboard they were long time fishing buddies they only broke bones and others had passed away now we've all heard about Amelia Earhart and her air crash obviously she went down somewhere in the Pacific nobody knows where she is when you talk about political air crashes it's this one hail Boggs he was a Louisiana Congressman he was flying with another Congressman up in Alaska it was October 16 1972 the wreckage has never been found they don't know what happened and it still remains a mystery today hail Boggs was the father of Cokey Roberts you may know her she was a commentator I believe on ABC News I could be wrong could be another Network him and Congressman Nick begich were on their way to Juno and they were never found to this day they're buried somewhere either in the ice or somewhere under water we don't know some have suggested the box was the target of Foul Play So 18 months after the crash Peggy baggage who was the Widow of Congressman baggage married a man named Jerry Max Paisley after the marriage Paisley was convicted of murder and was serving a life sentence now he claimed that bogg's plane was in Chester brought down by Mobsters who had planted a bomb aboard box not only served on the Warren Commission but he grabbed headlines in 1971 and when he boldly went up against J Edgar Hoover the powerful director of the FBI on April 5th 1971 Boggs gave a floor speech denouncing FBI and Hoover comparing their methods to tactics of the Soviet Union and Hitler's Gestapo logs called upon Attorney General John Mitchell to demand Hoover's resignation bug specifically charged that the FBI had wiretaps Congressional offices and staged agents on college campuses to spy on students numerous members of Congress have reported to me their firm conviction that their telephone conversations and activities are the subject of civilians by the FBI several members have made available to me detailed information confirming my own experience which substantiates these allegations it was my intention to make proper use of this this information in the very near future when the chief law enforcement agency of the nation violates the law then we're indeed in trouble documents which were later Declassified have proven that bogg's accusations against the FBI were true now there was a strange incident with Congressman Boggs it happened on July 23 1970 two years before he disappeared he was in his Lincoln Continental he was run off the road in Washington DC he had chased the car down he wrote down the license plate number and then he called the police but there was no record of the incident being investigated I continue to collect autographs as an adult and still do obviously I'm not a kid anymore in 2000 I wrote to the governor of Missouri Mel Carnahan unfortunately this is not signed by him personally it's one of those form letters that they can even reproduce the signature with basically he talks about the story of being very proud of its state and its citizens mentions Truman Omar Bradley Walt Disney to name a few also the significance that it had in the nation's development this letter is actually dated July 26 2000 and it was October 16 2000 when the two-term governor of Missouri was flying through the fog and Rain his plane went down in a wooded area about 25 miles west of St Louis specifically near Goldman now Governor Carnahan was a pilot and so was his son Randy Randy was flying the plane on that day carnehen was on his way to a campaign event and he was challenging U.S senator John Ashcroft for the U.S Senate seat somewhere on the trip his son got disoriented and there was some problems with the instrument panel and the plane went down his widow Gene actually became Governor that's another thing that I quite haven't figured out why when a public official dies or is killed dies of a heart attack or whatever the wife is considered to be the one to take over this happened with Governor Wallace I believe it also happened with Senator Hubert Humphrey and then Gene Carnahan took over and Bill Clinton was at the funeral and I have a picture here of Bill Clinton looking at the Widow killed in the crash for governor Carnahan he was 66 with his son Roger a Randy was this nickname and then there was a campaign Aid by the name of Chris Seifert he was 37 they all perished in the crash Governor Carnahan is buried in the Carson Hill Cemetery in Mill Spring Missouri I also received this Auto pin signature of Mela Carnahan not one of the ideals that I like when I asked for autographs when I used to write for autographs because nobody responds anymore there was another acquisition that I made this was like 14 or something it's a letter that's signed by Earl Snell he was the governor of Oregon it was dated in 1944 it's a letter basically to somebody who I think he knew maybe a friend of his son because it mentions it doesn't seem very long since your graduation announcement came to us from California and here you are clear across the country I can imagine you are having some interesting experiences Marshall this was a crash that was totally on the pilot pilot air so it probably wasn't the wisest thing to do the weather turned really bad it was October 28 1947 the governor and his top two officials wanted to go fishing and they departed in this plane encountered some bad weather outside of Klamath Falls they were coming up to a hill and apparently the pilot misjudged the altitude while trying to stay under cloud coverage they flew right into the ridge I shared off several Ponderosa Pines and just killed everybody on board in fact the aircraft wreckage is still there today there's a memorial there there's pieces of the aircraft that are still there and you can still go up there so when the governor dies the succession in Oregon goes to Secretary of State he was also killed on the plane if the Secretary of State isn't around then the succession goes to the president of the Senate he was also killed on the plane so the Oregon state government had been essentially decapitated of course there have been other deadly plane crashes for politicians it was on May 1st 1928 the New York Congressman Thaddeus sweet became the first sitting member of Congress to die in an airplane accident after breakfast that morning Congressman Sweden pilot Army Lieutenant bushrod Hopkin took off from an army observation plane which was a Curtis 01b falcon in Washington DC to fly to Oswego New York where he was to make a speech the plane encountered such bad weather between birminghamton and Cortland New York so the pilot decided to land in a field in a farm near Whitney Point New York the ground was rough and flipped the plane into a somersault and killed sweet who unbuckled his safety belt too early while Lieutenant Hopkin walked away Swede is buried in the rural cemetery at Phoenix New York and then there's the tragic plane crash that took life of Republican Montana Governor Donald Nutter and five others it was on January 25th 1962 their plane crashed during a snowstorm after only a year in office the governor was in route to a speaking engagement in Cut Bank when Winds of 100 miles an hour tore the right wing while the Montana Air National Guard c-47 SkyTrain which crashed into the Mountainside near Wolf Creek Governor Nutter is buried in the Sydney Cemetery in Sydney Montana it was on December 8 1972 when a United Airlines jetliner went down when it was approaching Chicago's Midway airport now a board was Congressman George Debbie Collins a Democrat and 42 others Colin's Widow Curtis Collins succeeded her husband in the Congress California Congressman Jerry Pettis who was a former military pilot was killed on February 14 1975 when he was flying his private plane and it crashed into a mountain near Banning California his wife Shirley Pettis replaced him in the house five days later one of the most tragic things that I learned about in doing this video was that Missouri Congressman Jerry Litton was killed with his entire family in a plane crash in Chillicothe Missouri he was in route to a Victory celebration on August 3rd 1976 after winning the state's Democratic Senate nomination when the plane went down right after takeoff they were riding in a Beechcraft Baron and had lost power when a crankshaft broke on one engine the plane plummeted unfortunately the victims were all burned beyond recognition they included the congressman his wife Sharon and their children Linda and Scott there was pilot Paul Rupp Jr and the pilots on Paul Ruth III Georgia Congressman Larry McDonald he was killed when Korean airliners flight 007 was shot down by a Russian fighter on September 1st 1983. on August 7 1989 Texas Congressman Mickey Leland who was a Democrat who chaired the house select committee on Hunger was killed when his plane crashed during a trip to inspect relief efforts in Ethiopia he is buried in Golden Gate Cemetery in Houston Texas six days later on August 3rd 1989 Mississippi Congressman Larkin Smith was killed as a passenger on a Cessna 152 that crashed into the woods in Southeastern Mississippi pilot error in hazy conditions were ruled in the probable cause of the crash on October 25th 2002 U.S senator Paul wellstone of Minnesota was killed when his small plane crashed in Eveleth Minnesota also killed where his wife Sheila daughter Marsha three staff members and two pilots the crash site is now a memorial in the historic site so I want to thank you for getting to the end of this video and I hope it doesn't scare you from getting on an airplane in the future because statistically air travel is the safest way to go often we get in our cars and we don't think about the dangers of it but we get on a plane we keep thinking oh this thing could go down and I could end up you know but that's usually doesn't happen so unfortunately it did happen to these men and some of their family members who were with them at the time and the pilots I would love to hear what you thought of this video what struck you about it are you scared of flying uh do you remember any of these men if you could also give us a like and if you could subscribe to history Hunters we would appreciate that as well thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music]

Channel: History Hunters

Views: 11,937

Keywords: Tragic plane crashes, History Hunters

Id: Cvx4d_NR9Vc

Length: 20min 19sec (1219 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2023