The Orlando Sentinel
Saturday, Nov 26, 1966
Plane Crash
Takes 1 Life

By BLANTON MCBRIDE
and DEXTER BALL

     DAVENPORT - A light plane with its gas gauge showing empty crashed here Friday morning, killing a Winter Park man and critically injuring an Orlandoan.
      Dead at the scene was John C. Butler, 24, of 1084 McKean Circle. Butler was believed to have been the pilot of the aircraft.
     THOMAS D. ENGEL, 23, of 625 Palmer St., was reported on the critical list Friday night after undergoing surgery at the Winter Haven Hospital.
      L. M. Vickers of Davenport, who discovered the crashed plane in a field near his home at 8 a.m., found Butler dead and Engel conscious and asking for help.
     Vickers told The Sentinel he knew he could not get the men out and ran for help. He called the police and ambulance service and then got his tractor to assist the ambulance service in getting into the wooded area.
      Scene of the crash was about one-half mile east of Horseshoe Creek in a cleared knoll in the middle of a densely wooded area. There was no sign of fire at the scene. The plane is believed to have crashed

shortly after 5:30 a.m.
      The sequence of events as reported indicate the control tower at Herndon Airport was asked by the pilot of the four-place Cessna Skyhawk, property of Skyway Aviation Service, Inc., for clearance on the runway at 4:59 a.m. At 5:25 a.m., the pilot asked for permission to try touch and go landings but shortly thereafter disappeared from the tower radar scope and did not again contact the tower.
      At 8:01, Skyway Aviation Service, reported the plane missing to the Orlando Police Department. Detective Sergeants J. J. Trulock and Tom Wylie went to Herndon where they found William Mead, 23, asleep in Butler's car. Mead told the detectives he had been with the two in the plane at the La Flame Nightclub on McCoy Road earlier in the evening.
      Officials of Skyway said Butler was a member of the Aeroclub and authorized to fly the club plane but not with passengers. However, detectives reported a window in the Skyway office was smashed and two sets of keys to planes taken. At 8:15, the Polk County Sheriff's Office got a call a plane had crashed in the vicinity of Davenport.
      An FAA inspection team arrived on the scene about noon and secured the area while they completed an investigation.