The Day The Football Coach Died

On this day in 1931, Transcontinental and Western Air Express Flight 599 crashed in Chase County, Kansas after losing a wing. A crew of two and six passengers were killed, and one of the passengers was a living legend, Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne. Rockne was on his way to participate in the production of a film, The Spirit of Notre Dame.

The Rockne plane crash hasn't lived on in pop culture quite like the Buddy Holly or Marshall football plane crashes, but in that early era of commercial aviation, it was one of the most shocking and influential air disasters of the century. It was front page news for months afterwards, and an investigation into its causes discovered that the Fokker Trimotor plane (named after Dutch manufacturer Anthony Fokker) had lost its wing due to cracks in its plywood structure. Similar cracks were found in other Fokker planes and they were subsequently grounded, causing the Fokker brand to be completely discredited in the U.S. As a result, the standards for the infrastructure of commercial planes was completely overhauled, and all-metal planes became the industry norm within a few years.

In Bazaar, Kansas, there is a memorial to the victims of the Rockne crash at the site where the plane went down. It is tended to by Easter Heathman, now 90 years old, who, as a thirteen-year-old boy, was one of the first people to come upon the scene of the crash.