It was 90 years ago on this day (1931) that legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne and seven other men were killed in the Flint Hills about 60 miles northeast of Wichita when a Fokker F-10 belonging to Transcontinental and Western Air crashed near Bazaar, Kansas. The plane took a hard nose-dive into the muddy ground, killing all upon impact, and completely destroying the aircraft.
Coach Rockne was 43 years old.
The scheduled flight was from Kansas City to Los Angeles, with a stop-over in Wichita for mail delivery. There was a strong cold front coming through the area; it was a rainy day with extremely low-hanging clouds, fog, and ice.
One investigation found the wooden wing became moist over time, causing the glue connecting the wing to the body to weaken, allowing the wing to separate.
The crash brought about significant changes in airplane safety, the airplane industry, and was of cultural significance, because of the death of Rockne and the public perception of the safety of aircraft. At the time, Rockne was the most famous person to ever perish in an airplane crash, and his death in Kansas made worldwide news.