Unscheduled Performance

The Lions Club of Flagler, Colo. (pop. 793) last week put on the first air show in the town's history. A thousand farmers, small-town businessmen, their wives and children turned out. It was great weather for flying.

Promptly at 2 p.m., Fred Ruble of Denver began a soaring demonstration in his sail plane and drew gasps of delight and awe. Just after he landed, the crowd heard the snarl of a plane coming in fast and low. It was 1st Lieut. Norman L. Jones of Denver, an experienced Air Force pilot, arriving in a low-wing monoplane. He was late. All pilots had been instructed to report by 2 for final briefing on safety. He zoomed the plane over the field at a 45DEG angle, just 200 feet off the ground, trailing smoke from the skywriting generator. The show's sponsors frowned. Jones was violating two rules: flying under 500 feet and stunting near the spectators.

The plane hurtled above the crowd upside down, started to roll over and up. Then with an eerie roar it ripped downward, crushed spectators, smashed six cars, including an ambulance. In an instant, the happy crowd was turned into a panic-stricken, blood-spattered mass of humanity screaming in terror and pain.

"God, it was awful," said Charlie Keller, a Flagler farmer who was standing with his wife, his 14-year-old daughter Zenelda, and six-year-old twins Johnny and Josephine. "I saw this plane coming. I hollered. 'Mama, duck!' I dived between two cars. There was an awful roar, and then this loud crash. I got up. looked around. Mama wasn't there. I couldn't see the children either, A short time before the accident. Mama said to me. 'Somebody could get killed.' I remember I said, I guess somebody could get killed, Mama.' " Keller found his wife, Zenelda and Johnny dead.

That night Flagler counted the gala day's toll: 20 dead, 50 injured. Every family in town could count a member killed or hurt. The toll might have been even worse. Just before the crash, a crowd of children ran from the fatal spot to get a better look at Fred Ruble's sail plane.

Among the dead was the only one who might have explained why it happened: Pilot Jones.

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