RAPID CITY, S.D. — South Dakota may most recently be remembered as the crash site of Payne Stewart’s jet in 1999. A loss of cabin pressure incapacitated all six on board, including the PGA Tour star, as the flight from Orlando, Florida, to Dallas veered off course and crashed into a field near Aberdeen.
Following Wednesday’s crash involving an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed more than 60, including U.S. and Russian figure skaters, the Sports Time Machine reflects on another athlete-related crash back in South Dakota.
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In 1968, six Rapid City High School cheerleaders returning from the state basketball tournament were killed on a private jet piloted by one of the girls’ fathers. All told, nine perished in the flames after the plane crashed Sunday, March 17 at the Rapid City Municipal Airport.
The pilot was Rapid City jeweler Ivan Landstrom, 56; his wife, Mary, 50; their daughter, Shirley, 18; Jan Glaze, 17; Kay McNutt, 17; Gail Flohr, 16; Terry Blanton, 16; Diana McClusky, 17; and cheerleading adviser Dororthy Lloyd, 60.
The Rapid City Journal reported that the school would be closed that Monday as the community mourned.
“They were as nice as any girls you’ll find,” Brian Brademeyer, a student council member, told the Rapid City Journal. “They were involved in almost everything.”
Glaze, the Journal reported, was the reigning homecoming queen.
“They were such a good influence on the other students,” Principal Donald Varcoe told the Journal. “They were the kind who would keep a crowd in line, the kind who would quiet down booing at a ball game.”
The news of the crash was carried via wire services to papers all over the country, including papers throughout the Dakotas and Minnesota, along with notable publications as the Miami Herald, Forth Worth Star-Telegram and Philadelphia Inquirer.
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The crash questioned the lack of major firefighting equipment at the airport as bystanders waited for crews from Rapid City and Ellsworth Air Force base to arrive.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined in its report the plane stalled during its final approach, adding the pilot failed to compensate for the windy conditions and maintain speed.
The tragic death of the cheerleading squad led to the annual “Spirit of Six” award, presented by the South Dakota Sheriffs and Police Officers Association. Today, that honor is issued by the South Dakota Peace Officers Association and received by cheer squads at each of the six South Dakota state basketball tournaments for boys and girls, the South Dakota Peace Officers website says.
In 1990, Kristi Arnold of Hamlin won the award with her fellow cheerleaders. Today, as Kristi Noem, she is the new U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and the former governor of South Dakota.
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