A Brief History
On April 4, 1991, US Senator from Pennsylvania John Heinz along with six other people died when a helicopter suffered a mid-air collision with the small airplane carrying Heinz over Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. Sadly, two of the seven fatalities were children on the ground.
Digging Deeper
Heinz is only one of many politicians that met an early demise in aircraft crashes, such as the following examples.
In 1928, Congressman Thaddeus Sweet of New York became the first US politician to die in an air wreck.
In 1947 and again in 1962, State Governors died in air wrecks, namely Gov. Snell of Oregon and Gov. Nutter of Montana. Gov. Mickelson of South Dakota met a similar fate in 1993, as did Missouri Gov. Carnahan in 2000.
The 1970s saw five US Representatives killed in airplane accidents.
Despite increased technology and safety measures, the 21st Century continued to see US politicians die in aircraft accidents, including a senator, a former senator, and a state senator.
Foreign heads of state have also met air related ends, including the President of Paraguay in 1940, the President of the Philippines in 1957, the former President of Brazil in 1958, the President of Iraq in 1966, another former President of Brazil in 1967, several more national leaders in the 1970s through the 1990s, and five national leaders since the year 2000.
Foreign heads of government have fared equally poorly, with 10 such leaders meeting their fate in aircraft since 1936.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Have you ever seen an airplane crash?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Dallin, Alexander. Black Box: KAL 007 and the Superpowers. University of California Press, 2023.
Woods, Mary and Michael. Air Disasters. Lerner Publications, 2008.
The featured image in this article, a drawing from the NTSB report of September 17, 1991, is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.
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