80 years ago on this day (1945): the death of noted Wichita pilot, Capt. Fred McConnell, at age 26.
McConnell died when his low-flying plane struck a high-tension power line with telephone wires a half-mile west of Garden Plain, crashing in a field.
Fred was the second of the three flying McConnell brothers to die young, after having survived 61 missions as a B-24 pilot in the South Pacific during World War II…