Extracted from The Shreveport Times (Shreveport, LA)
Monday, May 27, 1946

FAMILIES SEE PLANE CARRY TWO TO DEATH

ROBERT SAYERS ONE OF VICTIMS

1,500 at Natchitoches Witness Tragic Mishap

A Shreveport man, Robert Sayers, 22, son of Mrs. Walter W. Sayers, 3104 Stonewall street, and Rowland “Rocky” Gies, 22, of Crownsville, Md., were killed yesterday afternoon when their plane crashed before approximately 1,500 spectators at an air show at the Natchitoches airport.

Sayers' mother and brother Aaron Sayers, 3120 Stonewall street, and Gies' wife witnessed the accident. Mrs. Sayers collapsed and was taken to the clinic where she was being treated for shock.

Sayers, recently discharged as a lieutenant after serving in the army air forces, was pilot of the two-seated plane, a Piper Cub, and Gies was riding along as a passenger. They were participating in a balloon-bursting contest as the final feature of the air show between 4 and 5 p.m. when the crash occurred.

According to spectators who witnessed the crash, Sayers passed over the balloon flying at about 150 feet from the ground and missed it on his first try. Making a sharp turn with his plane traveling slowly and at a low altitude, it stalled out in the turn and spun in, crashing just off a taxi strip on the east side of the field about 2,000 feet from the crowds at the hangar.

Sayers was killed instantly. His body was not removed from the wreckage for about 15 minutes after the crash.

Still alive Gies was removed and rushed to Cockern clinic where he died about 10 minutes after arrival.

Sayers' body will be returned to Shreveport, and funeral services will be held in Logansport with Rose-Neath funeral home in charge. Time of services will be announced later.

Gies, who became a close friend of Sayers when both were taking army basic training, was visiting in the Sayers home with his wife, an expectant mother. His body will be sent to his home in Maryland for burial. The Gies had been in Shreveport several weeks and were considering making this their home.

Sayers was a student at Centenary college where he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He is survived by his mother and brother.