BRUBASHER, Dale - plane crash - Putnam

Greencastle – An empty fuel tank, a blinding snowstorm and no place to land led to the deaths of two Purdue University students and critical injuries to another when their light plane plunged into the side of a wooded gully Saturday night. A four companion miraculously forced his way out of the battered wreckage 7 miles northwest of here, staggered around for about two hours then dazedly followed a distant light to a farmhouse. About 50 National Guardsmen, state police, sheriff’s deputies and farmers began a widespread search of the hill country shortly after 11:20 p.m. when Walter H. Pol, 23, Laporte stumbled into the farm home of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Bock.  He told of leaving three companions, Donald H. Atkinson, 21, South Bend; Jerry A. Young, 20, Eaton and Dale C. Brushaber, 19, Saginaw, Mich in the wreckage before being rushed to a hospital. Atkinson and Brushaber were injured fatally. Bock said Pol knocked at the door and said, “I need help.”  Before passing out, Pol said he didn’t know exactly how the crash occurred, “I believe we ran out of gas. I was getting sick and was asleep in the back seat.  The next thing I remember, I was wandering around. It was 5 ½ hours later – 6 ½ hours after the fateful crash – that a faint national Guardsman’s cry of “straight south” sent rescuers scrambling about a mile south of the Bock farmhouse to the side of a gulley.  There was the shattered Piper Tri-pacer rented Saturday afternoon from the Aretz Flying Service in Lafayette. The four, all radio hobbyists, rented the plane for a trip to Muncie to get radio parts from Young’s home. Young and Brushaber were still alive despite nearly 8 hours in the sub-freezing weather. Atkinson, the pilot was dead. All three were pinned int eh wreckage. After 45 minutes of twisting, cutting and tearing away the remains of the four-place craft, Brushaber and Young were pulled out and rushed to the Putnam County hospital in Greencastle. Brushaber died while undergoing emergency surgery. Young was in critical condition Monday. Meanwhile, Pol was recovering and was listed as out of danger by hospital attendants. It had been a night of horror for Pol, an electrical engineering student. They left Lafayette about 4 p.m. After a brief stop at Young’s home, they took off from the Muncie Airport shortly after 5 pm.  Enroute to Lafayette a freak April snowstorm struck Indiana with winds that whipped it into  blinding flurries. When they couldn’t land in Lafayette, Atkinson who had been piloting a plane since he was old enough to get a license – four or five years – notified officials he would try and make it to Indianapolis about 60 miles away. There was only enough fuel for 30 minutes.  The students got lost in the snowstorm and veered about 40 miles off course. The tank went dry and the plane plunged to the ground. Pol told reporters Sunday he didn’t remember anything about the crash. I just woke up and there we were. I don’t know how long or far I went. I had lost my glasses – had no way of judging distances – just headed for the brightest light. That was a flood light at the Bock farmhouse. “I’ll never know what really happened, “ Pol repeated over and over from his hospital bed. All four students, active staff members of WCCR, a radio station at the men’s residence hall, resided in Cary hall.  Atkinson, a jr. in electrical engineering was treas of the Purdue Pilot’s Club. He was a grad of So. Bend Central HS and member of the Methodist Church.  Brushaber, a distinguished student was a sophomore in electrical engineer. Young is a sophomore in ee. Pol, a senior is industrial education is president of WCCR.