With a clear sky and good visibility, Bonnie Kelly and Eric Rasmussen knew it was an ideal opportunity to sneak a few moments of togetherness high above the commotion of daily life.
So the Grundy County couple, who were engaged to be married, slipped into the Piper Cub single-engine plane Monday night. Kelly, 23, strapped herself into the pilot’s seat. Rasmussen, 30, squeezed in behind her and buckled himself in.
Moments later the two were flying above the sprawling corn and soybean fields. But something went wrong. Less than one-half hour into the flight, the 1940s-era plane plunged into a wheat field southwest of Morris, near Illinois Highway 47 and DuPont Road.
Kelly, the daughter of the Grundy County coroner, died instantly. Rasmussen remained in critical condition late Tuesday at Loyola University Medical Center.
Sid Nelson, manager of the Morris Municipal Airport who planned to serve as best man at the wedding in August, said “There were no freer spirits than Bonnie and Eric. It’s an absolute tragedy that this would happen.”
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board spent most of Tuesday picking through the wreckage trying to determine what caused the plane to go down. NTSB officials did not return phone calls, but a spokeswoman with the Federal Aviation Administration, which is helping with the investigation, said it could take months to find the cause.
Kelly was an experienced pilot who worked as the chief flight instructor at a local aviation company. Rasmussen, who also worked as a flight instructor, held a commercial pilot’s license.
Terry Marketti, chief deputy with the Grundy County Sheriff’s Department, said Kelly and Rasmussen left the Morris Municipal Airport about 7:30 p.m.
Witnesses told police that they saw the plane about 8 p.m. performing some basic maneuvers, flying high, then dipping low. Witnesses said the plane was about 300 feet from the ground when the engine quit and the small, lightweight aircraft plummeted into the wheat field.
The plane hit the ground and then appeared to bounce about 50 feet before it came to rest, officials said. “We don’t know if the engine was cut off or if it malfunctioned,” Marketti said.
Jon Jacoba, who lives about 5 miles from the crash site, said he was in-line skating when he noticed a plane flying low to the ground.
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“The engine was crackling. It didn’t sound right,” said the 15-year-old pilot-in-training. “It was sputtering.”
The plane was heading south, Jacoba said, when it suddenly banked hard to the west, Jacoba said. “Then I saw the nose go way down below the tree line and when it didn’t come back up, I knew it had crashed.”
Friends said Kelly, who leaves a 4-year-old daughter, was born to fly. As a youngster, she worked at the Morris Airport washing planes and helping with odd jobs around the hangars.
A graduate of Lewis University with degrees in computer science and aviation, Kelly became the chief flight instructor with Littlefield Aeroplane Aviation in Morris. She taught basic flying courses as well as aerobatic flying classes.
A native of Blue Island, Kelly moved to Morris when she was a youngster. She was an honor roll student at Seneca Township High School and ran on the school’s track and field team.
“She was an outstanding young lady who had an amazing zest for life,” said Butch Cotter, superintendent of Seneca High School, a school of about 500 students. “She came into our lives and left footprints in our hearts.”