MIAMI, Fla., July 14—AP— A hurricane-hunting flier stepped from a taxiing airplane after a training flight last night and was fatally injured.
Lt. (JG) William George Hearne, 25, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., fell three feet from a plane moving only 15 miles an hour, but he struck the concrete of the Miami Naval Air Station runway, the Navy reported. He died early today at the veterans hospital.
Lt. Hearne was not the pilot of the craft. He had served as a navigator and was one of several officers in the cabin of the big hurricane-hunting plane.
The plane had completed a landing and was moving along the runway to get into position for another takeoff.
Exact circumstances of the accident were being studied by a board of inquiry.
William is buried in Missouri. His gravestone includes "Patrol Sq 23."