McDANIEL, Bruce
Source: Covington Friend Thursday, April 26, 1979
Killed when their single-engine airplane flew into the tail section of another plane were Bruce Ray McDaniel, 18, of Covington, and Jay Kent Linville, 22, of Route 4, Veedersburg.
The plane went down in a wheat field on a farm two miles north of Veedersburg, police said.
Troopers Phil Oliver and Dave Clark, who investigated the crash, said McDaniel’s craft and another plane piloted by Leonard Wilson of Perrysville were engaged in “recreational flight” when the two collided. Wilson managed to right his plane and later made a safe landing at the Perrysville Airport, where the flights originated.
That plane was considered to be a total loss. An FAA Spokesman in Indianapolis said the plane had tried to land at another small field nearby but could not because of a muddy strip.
Neither Wilson nor his passenger, Nick Linville, 25, Route 4, Veedersburg, Jay’s brother, was injured.
It is believed that Wilson and McDaniel were piloting the two planes on a recreation flight and for the purpose of taking pictures of the Linville farm when the craft carrying McDaniel and the younger Linville struck the tail of the other plane, authorities said.
The plane crashed about 3:30 p.m. in a wheat field on the farm of William L. Madigan, a retired employee of the Purdue University Agriculture Information Bureau and a former reporter for the Associated Press in Indiana.
Madigan, who was trimming trees in his backyard, said he heard an explosion and saw a plane circling overhead. He said he soon learned that a plane had crashed about a quarter of a mile west of his house.
The crash scattered debris over a wide area of the field. There was no fire, according to Fountain County Coroner Robert DeVerter and state police.
Four Illinois residents were killed in the crash of a small plane on the same farm on May 13, 1967.
DeVerter and others in this area described the dead men as two of the finest, hardest-working persons in the community.
McDaniel was graduated last year from Covington High School, where he played varsity basketball. He had been flying for about two years.
Jay Linville, who had been planning to attend the Covington High School senior prom with his girl friend, was an alumnus of the school.