Witnesses say a plane piloted by anti-abortion activist Mark Gietzen was flying low in dark, rainy conditions with its landing light on shortly before it crashed last May.
That’s according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The crash near Chambers, Nebraska, killed Gietzen, a well-known anti-abortion leader from Wichita. No one else was on board the plane.
The NTSB said the plane crashed nose first into a pasture at 9:25 p.m. on May 14. The crash site was about 14 miles south of a municipal airport in O’Neill, Nebraska.
A rancher discovered the wreckage two days later.
Gietzen, 69, left the Newton City-County Airport in his Cessna 172. Friends said he was headed to Glen Ullin, North Dakota, to visit his mother.
Witnesses told the NTSB they heard an airplane flying low over their houses about a mile from the crash site with its landing light on. The NTSB said footage from a home video surveillance camera confirmed the account.
Witnesses said there were low clouds and mist in the area when they saw the plane. The NTSB reported the ceiling at 300 feet.
The NTSB said there were no recorded communications from Gietzen during the flight
An inspection of the plane did not reveal any mechanical problems. The NTSB said fuel was found in the fuel tank lines and fuel selector valve.
Gietzen served in the U.S. Marines before coming to Wichita in the late 1970s to work for Boeing. He also became a pilot and flight instructor.
Gietzen became chair of Sedgwick County Republican Party after the “Summer of Mercy” anti-abortion protests in Wichita in 1991 and recruited anti-abortion activists into the party.
Gietzen was a familiar presence outside Wichita abortion clinics and at anti-abortion protests.
More recently, he ran for mayor of Wichita in 2019. He finished fifth in the nine-candidate primary field.
Last summer, after Kansas voters rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution to declare that it doesn't protect abortion rights, a small group of anti-abortion activists demanded a hand recount of ballots in nine counties. Gietzen used credit cards to cover most of the $120,000 cost so that recount could proceed.
The recount confirmed the results of the election, and Gietzen then filed a lawsuit seeking a statewide hand recount, but a judge dismissed it.
Before the election, Gietzen had filed suit to prevent the use of ballot drop boxes in the county. A judge dismissed the suit.
A final NTSB report on the crash is pending.
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