JESUIT MISSION PLANE IN DUBUQUE RECENTELY WAS WRECKED 1930

DE LON, WALSH, WEIN, PICKENPACK, FELTES

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 4/8/2016 at 16:56:28

DUBUQUE TELEGRAPH – HERALD AND TIMES JOURNAL; October 14 1930

FATHER DE LON IS
KILLED IN CRASH
~
JESUIT MISSION PANE THAT
WAS IN DUBUQUE RECENTELY
WAS WRECKED
~
TWO OTHER MEN LOSE
THEIR LIVES
~
Same Plane Was Dangerously
Close to Accident When Making
Landing in Dubuque
~
The Rev. Phillip De Lon, S. J., Catholic priest, who was in Dubuque briefly late July, departing on the missionary plane “The Marquette” was killed Sunday when that plane fell to the earth at Kotzebue, Alaska, in a test flight, according to the Associated Press dispatch to this paper.

Two other went to their deaths with Father De Lon. They were Rev. William F. Walsh, of the Kotzebue mission, and Ralph Wein, noted Alaskan aviator.

Wien had made a test flight before taking up the priests. The crash came when the ship was circling the field. Spectators said the motor seemed to stall and the ship dived to the ground, burying its nose in the frozen earth.

The “Marquette” was flown to Dubuque July 24 by Brother George Feltes, only airplane pilot of the Jesuit order and George Pickenpack, a full blooded Cherokee Indian pilot. Brother Feltes came to Dubuque to spend a few days with relatives here and at Cascade and Dyersville before beginning his piloting days in Alaska.

Rev. De Lon did not arrive in Dubuque in “The Marquette” but joined Rev. Feltes and Pickenpack here and flew the reminder of the route with them. He had been delayed in Chicago. Rev. De Lon had no relatives in Dubuque.

Father Walsh had been at Kotzebue a year members at the Society of Jesus at Seattle said. He had gone from Kotzebue from Seattle. Father De Lon was in charge of the De Smet. Idaho mission, and later was a teacher at the Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash.

The plane was a six-passenger Bellanca cabin model, powered by a 225 horse-powered diesel motor. It was to be used by Jesuit priest in visiting missions in the interior of Alaska. Missions cover an area of over 500,000 square miles. The plane equipped with radio receiving and sending sets, was also to be used in giving medical aid to the sick and injured in time of emergency.

“The Marquette” had been blessed and presented to the Jesuit Order at Roosevelt Field in New York but a few weeks before it was flown to Dubuque. In the landing at Dubuque, some difficulty was encountered when the pilot kept above the ground at the marshy south-end of the Dubuque airport too long, and it was necessary to climb for a second attempt at landing. In the climb, the plane skirted over electric and telephone wires at the north end of the field. The second landing however was perfect.