Gene Warren Dutton

DUTTON, BROOKE, AKERS, COLE, SWAYZE, BOYENS, MORRISON

Posted By: Lynn McCleary (email)
Date: 12/17/2016 at 10:38:04

The Muscatine Journal, Tuesday, February 20, 1968 pg 1

Gyrocopter Victim’s Services Set
West Liberty – Funeral services have been scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday at the West Liberty Methodist church for Gene Warren Dutton, 28, a West Liberty farmer who was killed about 2:45 p.m. Monday when his home built gyrocopter crashed on U.S. Highway 6 ¼ mile east of West Liberty.

Federal Aviation administration officials were expected to arrive in West Liberty this morning to investigate the crash.

Just before the accident, Bob Brooke, manager of the Dittmars-Kerr Co. said he saw a ball of fire and heard the engine quit, causing the gyrocopter to plunge about 50 feet to the ground. Brooke said the machine dropped, hitting a fence post, then bounced once and overturned onto Dutton on the highway. Parts of the aircraft were scattered over a one-block area, according to Brooke.

“I was out in front of the store about 2:45 p.m. when I saw this gyrocopter making kind of a big kind of a big circle, coming from the north toward the store,” Brooke said. “I thought he was going to buzz over the top and waved at him,” he added.

The engine stopped “Just like it locked up” after Brooke saw the ball of fire. He estimated the aircraft was about 50 feet in the air when the trouble developed.

The crash occurred about 300 feet from the company’s office building. The wreckage was taken to the company’s building to await inspection by FFA officials from Des Moines and by Civil Aeronautics Board officials from Kansas City.

Brooke said his wife had watched Dutton take off from a gravel road near their residence shortly before the crash. “She said he had trouble taking off,” said Brooke.

Dutton, who held a private pilot’s license, had started building the gyrocopter from a kit last summer and had flown the machine previously, Brooke said.

Highway Patrolman Ralph Akers and Muscatine county Deputy Sheriff Bill Cole investigated the accident. Highway traffic was limited to one lane until Muscatine County Medical Examiner Dr. V. W. Swayze arrived and authorized removal of the wreckage.

Dutton was born Jan. 30, 1940 at Iowa City, the son of Warren and Wilma Boyens Dutton. He married Wilma Boyens Dutton. He married Patricia Morrison on Nov. 24, 1964 at West Liberty.

Surviving are his widow, Patricia; one daughter Deborah, 13 months, his parents of West Liberty and his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Emma Boyens of West Liberty.

Funeral services will be conducted by Rev Harland T. Gant. Burial will be at Oakridge cemetery, Friends may call at the Snider funeral home in West Liberty