Tuesday, September 9, 1969, dawned bright and clear in Indiana. It was a beautiful day for a flight, or so thought pilot-in-training Robert Carey. Despite an increase in cloud coverage as the day wore on, Carey made the fateful decision to forge ahead with his flight plans. Little did he know that his small Piper Cherokee plane would become entangled in the worst commercial airline disaster in Indiana’s history.
Carey, a Korean War veteran and former aircraft mechanic with the United States Air Force, had always yearned to fly. He had begun taking lessons in New Hampshire before moving to Indiana. Once settled in Indianapolis, Carey enrolled in an advanced pilot training course at Brookside Airport. He had already passed the FAA written exam and was working on amassing the required number of solo flight hours to become a licensed pilot.