Posted in South Dakota
April 28, 2018
The Terrifying, Deadly Plane Crash In South Dakota That Will Never Be Forgotten
Air travel is much safer than traveling by car, but every once in awhile something goes wrong and when a plane crashes, we tend to remember the tragedy for decades. In 1993, Governor Mickelson died, along with seven others, in a plane crash near Dubuqe, Iowa. Just a few years later, a crash with very unique circumstances made headlines in South Dakota. In the strangest of circumstances, a chartered jet veered off course by more than 1,500 miles and crashed near Aberdeen.
It carried two crew members and four passengers, including Payne Stewart, a PGA golfer. Bruce Borland, a golf course designer, was also aboard, along with Stewart's agents, Van Ardan and Robert Fraley. The captain, Michael Kling, was 42 years old and had experience flying both privately and in the Air Force, with a total of 4,280 hours of flight time. Co-pilot Stephanie Bellegarrigue was just 27 years old, but she had already accumulated 1,751 hours of flight time.
Just eight minutes after takeoff, the pilot acknowledged his instruction to climb to 39,000 feet. A few minutes later when the air traffic controller attempted to contact the pilot again, no response was received.
An Air Force test pilot was flying in the vicinity of the Learjet, and it was deployed to check out the situation. The pilot flew next to the Learjet for awhile, and confirmed that the plane itself looked fine, but the windows were opaque from condensation, a sign that the cabin had lost pressurization.
Though the supplemental oxygen system was later found to be operational, passengers and flight crew likely lost consciousness from hypoxia. Three hours after the plane took off, two F-16s from the Oklahoma Air National Guard was deployed to fly alongside the plane. They were later joined by two more F-16s from the North Dakota Air National Guard. All four planes surrounded the Learjet, which was continuing on its doomed course.
Though the supplemental oxygen system was later found to be operational, passengers and flight crew likely lost consciousness from hypoxia. Three hours after the plane took off, two F-16s from the Oklahoma Air National Guard was deployed to fly alongside the plane. They were later joined by two more F-16s from the North Dakota Air National Guard. All four planes surrounded the Learjet, which was continuing on its doomed course.
As the pilots in the four Air National Guard F-16s watched helplessly, the plane plummeted toward the ground, turning in spirals as it went. It crashed at high speed into a field near Aberdeen. Luckily, the crash didn't kill anyone on the ground.
They determined that the supplemental oxygen system was working, but for some reason, those onboard were unable to utilize it before losing consciousness. The Safety Board couldn't find the cause of depressurization.
The Smithsonian Channel posted a story about this plane crash on YouTube, along with a simulation of the event:
Do you remember the 1999 Learjet crash in Aberdeen?
