CHARLES WILLIAM ROCK, 50, FORMER FAIRFIELD HOTELMAN IS KILLED IN CRASH

CHARLES WILLIAM ROCK, 50, Fairfield R. 1, was one of five Pennsylvania men killed instantly Saturday afternoon at 3:13 o'clock when their airplane crashed near Elmira, N.Y.

Rock, former proprietor of the Fairfield Hotel, had left his home Friday to join others at Middleburg, Md., to begin a flight to the Great Lakes to fish during the holiday week end. They had planned to land near Buffalo, N. Y., to fish along the shores of Lake Erie, Rock had told his wife.

According to news stories from Elmira, witnesses saw the plane coming in low as if preparing to land in a cow pasture. They said the motor sputtered just before the crash and the plane suddenly dropped and struck a clump of trees. The pasture is about a half mile from Elmira. The bodies were identified by papers found on the victims.

FOUR OTHERS KILLED
In addition to Mr. Rock, others killed in the crash, were listed as Elliot R. Kitchen, Paxtang, the owner and pilot; Raymond Rose, Selinsgrove; Earl W. Lynch, Pottsville R. 1, and Steve Doviak, Jonestown R. 1.

Identification was announced by Chemung County Police six hours after the crash, after they had called Harrisburg officials and checked the flight. The fishing party, according to air officials, had flown from an airport near Hagerstown where Kitchen had met the rest after flying from Harrisburg. The flight plan called for the plane to land at Little Current Airport on Manitoulin Island, Ontario.

First stop on the trip was at Lock Haven, according to the reports of air authorities, where the group halted for the night before resuming the flight Saturday.

HAD SWITCHED PLANES
Police said there were three planes in the flight, the Kitchen plane and two others. One of the planes was reported to have landed at Buffalo and the other returned to Hagerstown. Several of the men in the Kitchen plane, police said, had originally been in the other two planes, but switched at Lock Haven. Apparently the Kitchen plane was headed for the Chemung County Airport at Elmira witnesses told the police, because it was headed in that direction when the engine sputtered and the plane swung around in an apparent attempt to land in the pasture.
Original identification of the group came from the tail registration number on the plane which was identified by airport authorities at Harrisburg. The wrecked plane was a five-place Howard monoplane built in 1944. Other pilots at Harrisburg said the ship was in excellent condition before beginning the flight.

SERVICES WEDNESDAY
A native of Waynesboro, Mr. Rock is survived by his wife, Mrs. Henrietta Waltz Rock, Fairfield R. 1, and the following brothers and sisters: Ira and Melvin Rock, Mrs. Lucy Miller, Mrs. Ruth Sheldon, Mrs. Esther Hosfield, Mrs. T. H. McCarney and Mrs. Elsie Stitley, all of Waynesboro; Mrs. Mary Weyant, Lancaster, and Mrs. Elinore Henninger, Baltimore.

Funeral services Wednesday afternoon at 4 o'clock from the Grove Funeral Home, Waynesboro. Interment in the Burns Hill Cemetery.

Source : The Gettysburg Times Newspaper - Gettysburg, Adams Co., Pennsylvania - Monday, September 1, 1952