In 1947, three accidents involved the Gratz Airport, Gratz, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Two of the accidents were fatal. The first occurred in April 1947 and involved a young man who had just qualified for his private pilot’s license. On his first solo flight out of the Gratz Airport, he was killed.
Area newspapers reported on the crash. From the Shamokin News Dispatch, 21 April 1947:
Pilot Dies In Crash of Airplane
Hebe Flier Meets Death When Craft Plunges to Ground
Less than an hour after he was issued a private pilot’s license, Glenn Leitzel, 20, Hebe, Jordan Township, was killed Saturday afternoon at 12:30 when a light airplane he was flying crashed into a vacant lot adjoining his home.
Leitzel’s father and two neighbors lifted the pilot from the wreckage and carried him to the Leitzel home, where he was pronounced dead by the family physician. Dr. Sidney Kallaway, Shamokin, Northumberland County Coroner, investigated the fatality and said the youth’s death was caused by a broken neck and multiple fractures.
Leitzel, who was flying a Taylorcraft plane owned by the Byerson Air Service, Gratz, had received his private pilot’s license only 45 minutes earlier. He learned to fly at the Gratz Airport under provisions of the G.I. Bill of Rights.
Neighbors said that Leitzel was flying low when he appeared over his home, and that the plane’s motor apparently stalled, causing the craft to go into a spin. Leitzel was unable to pull the plane out of the spin, with the result that it crashed nose first into a lot adjoining the Leitzel home. The plane toppled over and the tail came to rest against the home of John Peifer, a neighbor of the Leitzels. The plane did not catch fire, but was badly damaged. Officials of the Gratz Airport said Leitzel apparently cut the switch right before the crash, thereby lessening the danger of fire of explosion.
Richard Wheeler, Shamokin State Police, and members of the Lykens Troop investigated the accident. An aeronautics investigator for the Pennsylvania State Police was expected to open an investigation into the crash today.
Coroner Kallaway directed that Leitzel’s body be removed to the Reed Funeral Home, Pillow. Funeral services will be held Tuesday afternoon.
Surviving are the parents, two brothers, Leon Leitzel, Klingerstown, and Ray Leitzel, at home, both licensed pilots, and four sisters, Gladys Leitzel, Irene Leitzel, and Roxie Leitzel, at home, and Mrs. Marline Hoover, Ohio.
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News article from Newspapers.com.
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