Cause of crash uncertain
the Kansan staff
HESSTON -- Tim Klassen of Hesston loved
flying airplanes. He liked ultra-lights and experimental aircraft.
Klassen, 44, died Monday near Benton
when the 1991 kit airplane he was in crashed. The Federal Aviation
Administration is investigating the crash that also killed another
man who Butler County officials said was apparently from Andover.
Klassen, whose parents Perry and
Clareen Klassen live in rural Hesston, grew up in Goessel. He
graduated from Goessel High School in 1973 and attended Manhattan
Vocational Technical School in Manhattan, Kan., for mechanics
training in 1974.
He was a courier for Federal Express in
Wichita for 16 years.
The FAA's initial report of the
accident was inconclusive, saying only that an "experimental
aircraft crashed under unknown circumstances and was destroyed."
The two-seater Rans S-10 went down
about one-quarter mile south of 2549 Northwest Butler Road near
Benton.
The FAA listed the plane as
"experimental" and "amateur built," but was last
registered in 1994 with the FAA.
Funeral service for Klassen will be
10:30 a.m. Friday at Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church near Goessel.
