On the evening of the 31 August 1969, the former World Heavyweight Champion, Rocky Marciano, was killed, along with a family friend and the pilot, when their single-engine Cessna 172-H came down in the American Midwest, on the eve of his 46th birthday.
The trio had taken off from Midway Airport in Chicago, despite warnings of stormy weather on their flight path. At around 9 pm the descending Cessna hit an oak tree in the middle of a pasture, south-west of Newton Airport. The impact ripped off one of the wings and sent the disintegrating plane bouncing across farmland before it came to rest in a creek bed.
The intended destination, a trip of around two and a half to three hours, was Des Moines, Iowa, where a former high school sports star who had known Marciano since childhood, was opening an insurance business. The ex-champ, famously retired from the ring in 1956 with an undefeated 49-0 record, had agreed to make an appearance there to support the venture and a surprise party also awaited him.
Sheriff’s deputies arrived a short time later and struggled to locate the plane, eventually discovering the scene of devastation.The Jasper County medical examiner later concluded that all three men had been killed instantly. Air accident investigators moved in and a little over a month later the National Transportation Safety Board released a report which blamed the pilot, concluding that he was neither experienced nor qualified enough to cope with the weather conditions he faced that night.
31 August, 2019