‘A tragedy stuns the county’: The day 4 Bellefonte men were killed in a plane crash

This article was published in the Centre Daily Times on Sept. 5, 1969 — a day after four Bellefonte men were killed while flying to Harrisburg. To mark the 50th anniversary of the crash, a remembrance ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the sculpture garden at Talleyrand Park where four lamp posts stand in honor of the victims.

Visit centredaily.com Wednesday for coverage of the event.

Officials pressed their investigation today of the cause of a plane crash near Port Royal yesterday which took the lives of four Bellefonte area men.

Killed were Bellefonte Mayor Sidney G. Willar, 78; Robert Dunlap, 46, Bellefonte, and Harold Flick, 35. Julian RD, part-owners of Dunlap Motors, Bellefonte; and Gerald Robison, 29, administrative assistant in the College of Engineering at the University.

The men were en route to Harrisburg for meetings concerning the Big Spring Bicentennial to be held later this month, sponsored by the Bellefonte Area Jaycees.

Three of the men, Mr. Flick, Mr. Robison and Mr. Willar, had made arrangements to meet Daniel R. Clemson, Bellefonte native and administrator in the office of the State Auditor General, at the Harrisburg-York Airport, New Cumberland.

With Mr. Flick as pilot they took off at 2 p.m. from the Bellefonte Skypark, new airport development of Mr. Dunlap’s west of Bellefonte.

They encountered a thick low-hanging cloud layer en route to Lewistown and turned back, the single-engine Cherokee aircraft not being equipped for that type of flying.

Mr. Dunlap then volunteered to take them to Harrisburg in his twin-engine Comanche which was equipped for radio navigation. They took off about 4 p.m. after Mr. Robison called Mr. Clemson at the airport, saying they’d be there in about 20 minutes.

Mr. Clemson said last night that when they failed to arrive about 5:30 p.m. he reported the plan overdue to the airport authorities.

Gene Stocker of Bellefonte, close friend of the men, learned about 7 p.m. that the plane was overdue and at 7:30 p.m. got in touch with state police, who said they had a report of an “explosion” near Port Royal.

Mr. Clemson had arranged for the men to go to the William Penn Museum in Harrisburg, where they were to have met Dr. S. K. Stevens, executive secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and Clifford H. McConnell, chief engineer for the Department of Forests and Waters. The two men are scheduled to be speakers at the bicentennial celebration in Bellefonte.

Plans were to take photographs of the group at the museum together with items pertaining to the spring and early Bellefonte for use in promoting the celebration.

The Bellefonte Borough Office will be closed Monday until noon for the funeral of Mayor Willar. There will be no Borough services until Monday afternoon.

Hugh T. Manchester, Council president, this morning asked veterans organizations, clubs, fire companies and similar organizations with outdoor flags to put them at half staff out of respect for the four men.

The accident occurred five miles southeast of Port Royal in Turbett Township, in the Tuscarora Mountain range.

Lewistown state police, among the first at the crash site found a watch belonging to one of the victims, which had stopped at 4:23 p.m.

Because of the terrain and weather conditions, it took state police three hours to reach the plan.

They were aided in their search by reflection from the plane, which burned on impact and was still in flames at 8 p.m. None of the victims was thrown clear of the wreckage and police reporter all bodies were found in the fuselage. Witnesses said the wreckage was scattered over an area 200 feet square.

J. Robert Stimmel of Port Royal reported hearing the plane flying low over the town “shortly after 4 p.m.” He said, “It was terrifically overcast and the plane flew over the town very low. I told my wife ‘that plane is too low to make it over the mountain. I ran outside and looked for the plane but I couldn’t see it because of the low clouds and fog.”

Mr. Stimmel was at the crash site last night and remarked, “It was so foggy you couldn’t see five feet.”

One witness observed, “The plane was withing 200 feet of clearing the mountain.”

James Summerson, Pennsylvania Aeronautics Commission investigator, was dispatched to the scene late yesterday. He was joined early today by Lewis Wells of the National Transportation Board, New York, who is now in charge of the investigation to determine the cause of the crash of the twin-engine Piper Comanche.

A State Aeronautics Commission spokesman said the plane was flying VFR, (Visual Flight Rules) even though “the weather was marginal.” Patrol Group 1300 of which Major Dunlap was commanding officer. Because of conditions, they did not proceed to the crash until daylight.

Officials said the bodies were expected to be moved from the mountain by noon today.

The wreckage will be moved under the supervision of the National Transportation Board and examined in an effort to determine if the crash was caused by mechanical failure.

Lanny McCoy, manager of the Lewistown Airport, denied a rumor that the Dunlap plane had landed there en route to Harrisburg and prior to the crash. He said he had no knowledge of it.

With the death of Mayor Willar, Bellefonte Council President Hugh T. Manchester again automatically will serve in that office until a successor is chosen.

Mr. Willar had been appointed four months ago to serve out the unexpired term of John L. Hughes, who resigned.

At the spring primaries both Republicans and Democrats nominated Ellis O. Keller as Mayor and while he would have been unopposed on the ballot for election in November, friends report that Mr. Willar was considering being a candidate on a sticker campaign.

Mr. Manchester has been mayor on three earlier occasions; while Mayor G. M. McCrossin was on a vacation trip to Florida; when Mr. McCrossin resigned and before Mr. Hughes was appointed, and when MR. Hughes resigned and before Mr. Willar’s appointment.

Bellefonte Jaycees, in whose interst the four men set out on the flight to Harrisburg, received the news as they prepared to meet for a bicentennial celebration planning session last night in the basement of the Undine Fire House.

Just as acting chairman Steve Garner was about to call the meeting to order, Frank Clemson entered and announced the news.

The saddened, stunned Jaycees, after learning what little there was to know, made hasty plans to meet later and left the room. They were to meet this afternoon to consider future plans for the bicentennial.