Ironically this was not his only crash in a plane, in Feb 1952 he survived a small plane accident !
His accident occurred during AquaFest - Rice Lake's community festival - and thus made front page news. Here's how the article read from the June 19, 1968 edition of the Rice Lake Chronotype:
(The front page has a multi-columned pic of a US Army helicopter pulling up what is left of Mr. Bourn's helicopter from Rice Lake)
Woodville Man Plunges into Lake Friday Afternoon
Trajedy struck the opening day of Rice Lake's 1968 Aquafest celebration Friday evening, as gathering crowds on the waterfront were eyewitnesses to a helicopter crash of a 48 year old Woodville man.
The plunging helicopter, brought to the city only that day to offer rides during the celebration carried to his death its owner, John T. Bourn, as it dropped into the lake a scant 200 yards from the crowded midway along the city beach.
Among the witnesses were Bourn's three oldest sons, Richard, 16, Tom, 13, and Jim, 10, who had accompanied their father here when he trucked the helicopter in to set it up for a weekend of offering rides at the festival.
Municial lifeguards Dennis DeGidio and Bob Smith brought their lifeboat to the site only seconds after the five passenger G-17 "whirlybird" had disappeared beneath the water, and were able to attach a line and float marker to the plane.
Bourn's body, however, was not recovered until 8 p.m., after some three hour's work by sheriff's deputies and skin divers summoned to the scene. His plane, a Bell Ranger was not brought to the surface until Monday afternoon.
That job was done by a crew of specialists from the Illinois Air National Guard, with a giant military CH37 'copter flown here from Camp Ripley, Minn. under command of Maj. R. E. Hagen.
The large military plane, like a giant bird with an injured duckling, plucked the downed craft from the water at the end of a sling, and carried it gently to the nearby parking lot of the Birchwood Manufacturing Co., for examination by inspectors of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Witnesses to the tragedy Friday said that the plane, in its initial flight of the day, had made one circle of the Midway area when something appparently went wrong with the controls. The plane came eastward over the trees at the foot of E. Eau Claire St., opposite the Elks club, with the body spinning wildly underneath the rotors, then plunged some 75 feet almost vertically into the water.
(Examiner George Seidlein of Chicago, summoned to inspect the wreck for the F.A.A., reported Monday that a bolt had sheared off in the main rotor transmission gearing, making it impossible to control.
(An autopsy conducted at Eau Claire on the pilot's body determined that death was due to drowning, but that head and neck injuries made it probable that he was unconscious after the first impact with the water.)
Lifeguards who reached the scene immediately after the crash were able to attach a line to the sunken craft, in about 20 feet of water, but could not get deep enough to find the body.
Four local scuba divers, Wayne Cobb, John Moin, Jerry Lehman and Dave Atherton, were called on by Sheriff Wally Larson and after some two hours work were able to free the body, found pinned among debris of the smashed plastic canopy of the plane, by 8 p.m. Friday.
The plane was left for the remainder of the week end, marked by a bobbing red float to carry a reminder for Aquafest crowds watching other events along the waterfront.
Funeral services for Mr. Bourn were held Tuesday afternoon from the Skari-Dull funeral chapel at Woodville, with Rev. Otto Sieser officiating, and burial was made in the Baldwin cemetery.
Mr. Bourn was a native of Downing, and a graduate of the Boyceville high school. After three years of service in World War II, he had worked on the west coast, starting flying helicopters in Idaho in 1956, spraying wheat and then offering rides at state fairs and carnivals throughout this country and Canada.
He once was featured in Life magazine for the stunt of piloting a 'copter in which a marriage ceremony was performed while the bride and groom hung from a trapeze, adn was given credit for assisting in several life-saving missions with his plane.
He is survived by his wife, the former Molly Ajner of Hudson, and nine children, Richard, 16, Lou Ann, 15, Tom, 13, Nanette, 12, Jim, 10, Aleta, 9, Deborah, 8, Marilyne, 5 and Charlene, 1, in addition to his mother and two sisters and three brothers.
Ironically this was not his only crash in a plane, in Feb 1952 he survived a small plane accident !
His accident occurred during AquaFest - Rice Lake's community festival - and thus made front page news. Here's how the article read from the June 19, 1968 edition of the Rice Lake Chronotype:
(The front page has a multi-columned pic of a US Army helicopter pulling up what is left of Mr. Bourn's helicopter from Rice Lake)
Woodville Man Plunges into Lake Friday Afternoon
Trajedy struck the opening day of Rice Lake's 1968 Aquafest celebration Friday evening, as gathering crowds on the waterfront were eyewitnesses to a helicopter crash of a 48 year old Woodville man.
The plunging helicopter, brought to the city only that day to offer rides during the celebration carried to his death its owner, John T. Bourn, as it dropped into the lake a scant 200 yards from the crowded midway along the city beach.
Among the witnesses were Bourn's three oldest sons, Richard, 16, Tom, 13, and Jim, 10, who had accompanied their father here when he trucked the helicopter in to set it up for a weekend of offering rides at the festival.
Municial lifeguards Dennis DeGidio and Bob Smith brought their lifeboat to the site only seconds after the five passenger G-17 "whirlybird" had disappeared beneath the water, and were able to attach a line and float marker to the plane.
Bourn's body, however, was not recovered until 8 p.m., after some three hour's work by sheriff's deputies and skin divers summoned to the scene. His plane, a Bell Ranger was not brought to the surface until Monday afternoon.
That job was done by a crew of specialists from the Illinois Air National Guard, with a giant military CH37 'copter flown here from Camp Ripley, Minn. under command of Maj. R. E. Hagen.
The large military plane, like a giant bird with an injured duckling, plucked the downed craft from the water at the end of a sling, and carried it gently to the nearby parking lot of the Birchwood Manufacturing Co., for examination by inspectors of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Witnesses to the tragedy Friday said that the plane, in its initial flight of the day, had made one circle of the Midway area when something appparently went wrong with the controls. The plane came eastward over the trees at the foot of E. Eau Claire St., opposite the Elks club, with the body spinning wildly underneath the rotors, then plunged some 75 feet almost vertically into the water.
(Examiner George Seidlein of Chicago, summoned to inspect the wreck for the F.A.A., reported Monday that a bolt had sheared off in the main rotor transmission gearing, making it impossible to control.
(An autopsy conducted at Eau Claire on the pilot's body determined that death was due to drowning, but that head and neck injuries made it probable that he was unconscious after the first impact with the water.)
Lifeguards who reached the scene immediately after the crash were able to attach a line to the sunken craft, in about 20 feet of water, but could not get deep enough to find the body.
Four local scuba divers, Wayne Cobb, John Moin, Jerry Lehman and Dave Atherton, were called on by Sheriff Wally Larson and after some two hours work were able to free the body, found pinned among debris of the smashed plastic canopy of the plane, by 8 p.m. Friday.
The plane was left for the remainder of the week end, marked by a bobbing red float to carry a reminder for Aquafest crowds watching other events along the waterfront.
Funeral services for Mr. Bourn were held Tuesday afternoon from the Skari-Dull funeral chapel at Woodville, with Rev. Otto Sieser officiating, and burial was made in the Baldwin cemetery.
Mr. Bourn was a native of Downing, and a graduate of the Boyceville high school. After three years of service in World War II, he had worked on the west coast, starting flying helicopters in Idaho in 1956, spraying wheat and then offering rides at state fairs and carnivals throughout this country and Canada.
He once was featured in Life magazine for the stunt of piloting a 'copter in which a marriage ceremony was performed while the bride and groom hung from a trapeze, adn was given credit for assisting in several life-saving missions with his plane.
He is survived by his wife, the former Molly Ajner of Hudson, and nine children, Richard, 16, Lou Ann, 15, Tom, 13, Nanette, 12, Jim, 10, Aleta, 9, Deborah, 8, Marilyne, 5 and Charlene, 1, in addition to his mother and two sisters and three brothers.
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