In 1947, three accidents involved the Gratz Airport, Gratz, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Two of the accidents were fatal. The second accident occurred in July 1947. Shortly after pilot David Savidge took off from the Gratz Airport, with one passenger, for a late evening ride, the plane went down in flames in the vicinity of Specktown Road in Lykens Township, Dauphin County. Both the pilot and passenger, Mary Willier were killed.
There was wide regional newspaper coverage of the crash. From the Pottsville Republican, 25 July 1947:
Pilot, Girl Killed as Plane Takes Fire, Falls at Gratz
While his fiancee watched in horror from her auto nearby, a pilot and girl passenger were killed in the crash in flames of a light plane near the Gratz Airport shortly before 1 o’clock this morning.
The pilot, David Savidge, 29, of Fountain, and the passenger, Mary Willier, 29, of Hegins, were burned to death, trapped in the plane, when rescuers reached the scene, a clover field about three miles southwest of the airport.
Rescuers were powerless to help them. Their bodies were burned to a crisp and it was several hours before they could be removed.
Savidge’s fiancee, Miss Ruth Koppenhaver, 29, of Valley View, said that the three had gone to the airport about 10:30 last night so Savidge could do some night flying in the plane, a Piper cruiser which he owned and kept at the airport.
Savidge, who has had years of experience as a pilot, warmed up the plane and took off alone for a flight of about a half hour while the two girls sat in his car and waited for his return.
When he came back he asked if he had taken off all right on his first trip and was assured that he had. He then asked Miss Koppenhaver to go for a ride with him. She said she did not care to go but Miss Willier consented.
The takeoff was made without mishap, Miss Koppenhaver said, and the plane had been in the air two or three minutes when she turned to look in another direction.
At that moment a woman among a group of others who had been attracted there by the night-flying plane screamed that the ship was in flames, Almost immediately it plummeted to earth, into the clover field. Rescuers rushed there immediately but were powerless to help. When they arrived the plane had been completely destroyed except the tail which was still burning.
Savidge purchased the plane last fall and several weeks ago began night flying.
The bodies were released by Dr. S. E. Herrold of Lykens, Dauphin County Deputy Coroner to West End undertakers.
Miss Koppenhaver is employed as secretary at the Keystone Garage at Hegins. They were to have been married in the fall.
Savidge was a son of Jonas Savidge and the late Lottie [Hoffman] Savidge and was a member of the Fountain Church. He was employed in Indiana in a Government capacity during the war. He was a 32nd Degree Mason.
The Savidge funeral will be held on Tuesday morning from the home of Monroe Savidge with Rev. Yoh, pastor of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, Hegins, in charge of the services. Burial in the adjoining cemetery.
Miss Willier was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Willier, and was a member of Lutheran Church. She was employed as a clerk in the Hegins Bank.
Surviving besides her parents is one sister Betty Willier, a school teacher. Funeral arrangements are being completed by the A. R. Buffington Funeral Home.
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News article from Newspapers.com.
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