Plane crash claims life of Naylor


The MPD, Monticello Amulance and MFD were all on scene following Jerry Naylor’s plane crash. Naylor was pronounced at the scene of the accident. He was an avid pilot and loved to spend time in his plane with his dog Jasmine.

Naylor’s plane is carried off the field in which it crashed later that day, July 1. It is being held at the Monticello airport while the NTSB and FAA continue their investigation as to the cause of the accident. (Photos courtesy of Dixie Shady)

Jerry Naylor
By: 
Kim Brooks
Express Editor

     Long time Scotch Grove resident and avid pilot Jerry Naylor, 90, passed away on July 1 from injuries sustained in a plane crash near the Monticello Regional Airport.

     Chris Hinrichs, who lives on 144th Avenue near the airport heard the crash and was the first to call 9-1-1.

     The call went out at around 4p.m. and Hinrichs said the Monticello ambulance and police were first to arrive on scene, followed by the MFD due to a fuel leak from the plane.

     “We were in the garage and heard a crash,” explained Hinrichs. He said it sounded different than just fireworks going off. “It was something odd.”

     The Hinrichses ran out of their garage and saw a wheel sticking up out of the cornfield neat to the runway.

     “Courtney (Hinrichs’ wife) thought a plane crashed,” he said. “But it took a second to sink in.”

     As Hinrichs ran across the field to the scene of the crash, he was on the phone with Jones County Dispatch.

     “This is no different than what I do for a living,” he said. Hinrichs volunteers for the Monticello Fire Department and is a captain of the Cedar Rapids Fire Department.

     The plane was not a fire; Naylor was pronounced dead at the scene.

     “We’re used to hearing planes overhead all the time,” Hinrichs said of living so close to the local airport. He said they didn’t hear the plane coming in to land, but definitely heard the crash.

     Hinrichs talked to the pilot of another plane that landed at the Monticello airport just after Naylor’s accident. The pilot, from Illinois, told Hinrichs that Naylor called in on the radio saying he was getting ready to land.

     Teresa Bader, who works at the Monticello airport, confirmed those same sentiments.

     “He (Naylor) was coming back on his final approach to land,” said Bader. “He called in on the UNICOM (Universal Communications) and with other pilots here.”

     Roy Carter, a mechanic at the Monticello airport, said it appeared Naylor made a sharp right turn before coming in to land.

     “He (Naylor) had the runway made,” commented Carter on the landing.

     He said the wing hit the ground first, followed by the engine.

     “The plane ended up upside down,” said Carter.

     The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) and FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) were called in to investigate the crash. They were still inspecting Naylor’s plane on site at the airport as of late last week. Monticello Police Chief Britt Smith said once the results are back from both agencies, as well as the autopsy from the State Medical Examiner, more information will be released in the coming weeks.

     Dixie Shady, whose property butts up against the airport, had no idea a plane crashed outside her home until a family member called to notify her after hearing it on the scanner.

     “They heard that there was a plane down at the Shady farm,” explained Shady of the call.

     Shady was home at the time but didn’t hear a sound.

     “I walked out of my home and saw emergency vehicles were just starting to get here,” she said.

     Shady could see something sticking out of the field.

     “I never pay attention to the planes,” she said, echoing Hinrichs’ comment.

     Shady said she saw Air Care circling the airport, but never landed.

     Naylor, who long-time friend Armin Jacobs said has been flying since he knew him in the 1950s, was flying a CTSW, a fixed-wing single-engine aircraft. The FAA registration is dated March 28, 2006, with an expiration date of March 31, 2020. He was flying that day with his long-time flying companion Jasmine, a Goldendoodle. Jasmine was found following the accident, alive, in the cornfield.

     Bader said Naylor has had a hangar at the airport for many years where he stored his planes.

     “I would see him out two or three times a week flying, as long as the weather was nice,” Bader recalled.

     Carter said the NTSB was able to salvage the engine monitor from Naylor’s plane.

     “That was still intact,” said Carter.

     However, the air data box was destroyed in the crash. Both instruments will tell how the aircraft was performing at the time of the crash.

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