David E. Higbie 1928-1946

HIGBIE, HIGBY

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 3/28/2011 at 19:59:53

Iowa Man is Aboard Missing Private Plane
Seattle – David Higbie, Estherville, Iowa, was reported aboard a private plane which has failed to report anywhere since it left here April 26 on a flight to the east coast.

A Cessna plane, piloted by Leif C. Buschman, Jr., 22, left Boeing field April 26 with 4 passengers aboard on a chartered flight, the civil aeronautics administration said Tuesday.

On May 3 the Missoula, Mont., CAA communications station reported it heard a single call “Cessna – 280.” The 5-place plane carried the number NC49280, the CAA said.

Inquiries at every established field between here and Chicago have failed to turn up any clues, the CAA reported. (Mason City Globe-Gazette, Mason City, IA, May 8, 1946)

Call Heard Week After Plant Reported Missing
Seattle – The civil aeronautics administration airways traffic office said Tuesday it had a report that the call “Cessna -280” was heard by the Missoula, Mont., CAA communications station late May 3, a week after the private plane left here for the east coast with six aboard and failed to report anywhere.

The call was heard at 5:51 p.m. (M.S.T.) and the Missoula station answered, the office here said. No further message, however, was heard.

On the morning of April 26, the Cessna plane piloted by Leif C. Buschman, Jr., 22, with four passengers aboard left Boeing field here on a charter flight. The co-pilot was Walter Green, 28. Both are former army fliers, of Seattle. (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, Walla Walla, WA, May 8, 1946)

North Iowan in Air Crash
Estherville Man is Among Missing Persons
Seattle- Bits of wreckage from a twin-engined plane which vanished April 26 with 6 persons aboard, including David Higby, Estherville, Iowa, have been found by searchers in the timber near Lake Keecheius, high in the Cascade mountains east of here.

Searchers who remained in the area Sunday night until after dark had found no bodies or the major portion of the wreckage.

Identification was made by James Dunnam, manager of the craft’s home airport at Seattle, said, by piecing together several numbers located in the scattered debris. (Mason City Globe-Gazette, Mason, City, IA, July 8, 1946)

Six Bodies Brought Out of Mountains
Seattle, July 20 – A searching party was to bring from the Cascade mountain wilderness today the remains of six occupants of a two-engined plane that disappeared April 26 a few minutes after taking off from Seattle on a cross-country flight.

The twisted battered fuselage of the Cessna craft was found three miles southwest of Lake Keechelus, east of Snoqualmie Pass, late yesterday.

The pilots were two Seattle ex-army airmen: Leif Buschmann, Jr., 22, and Walter Green, 28.
The passengers on the private flight were Joseph E. Speidel of North Olmsted, Ohio; Mark S. Barrick, Youngstown, Ohio; David Higby [Higbie], Esterville, Ohio, [Estherville, Iowa]; and Robert Bensco, Metuchen, N.J. (Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden, UT, July 10, 1946)

Plane Crash Kills Ohioans in Northwest
Seattle – A searching party was to bring from the Cascade Mountain wilderness today the bodies of six occupants of a two-engined plane that disappeared April 26, a few minutes after taking off from Seattle on a cross-country flight.

The twisted, battered fuselage of the Cessna craft was found three miles southwest of Lake Keecheius, east of Snoqualmie Pass, late yesterday. The searching party reported the four passengers and two pilots were killed outright when the plane crashed against the base of a big tree after treetops clipped off pieces of the craft for a quarter of a mile.

The pilots were two Seattle ex-Army airmen. Passengers on the private flight were: Joseph E. Speidel of North Olmsted, Ohio; Mark S. Barrick, Youngstown, Ohio; David Higby [Higbie], Estherville, Ohio [Iowa], and Robert Bensco, Metuchen, N.J. (Athens Messenger, Athens, OH, July 10, 1946)

Note: Per Washington State Death Index, dod July 10, 1946, Kittitas County, Wa.