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This is a list of prominent American politicians who died in plane crashes.
May 1, 1928: New York Representative Thaddeus C. Sweet (R). Sweet dies in a plane crash in Broome County, New York.
October 28, 1947: Oregon Governor Earl Snell (R). Snell dies in a plane crash during a storm near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
January 25, 1962: Montana Governor Donald Nutter (R). Nutter dies in a plane crash during a snowstorm.
October 16, 1972 – House Majority Leader Hale Boggs Louisiana (D) and Rep. Nick Begich, Alaska (D). They are both aboard a plane that disappears from radar in bad weather over Alaska. The remains are never found.
December 8, 1972: Illinois Representative George W. Collins (D). Collins is killed when a United Airlines plane crashes on approach to Chicago's Midway Airport. Forty-four other people die. Collins' widow, Cardiss Collins, succeeds her husband in the House.
February 14, 1975: California Representative Jerry Pettis (R). Pettis, a former military pilot, dies while piloting his private plane. The plane crashes into a mountain near Banning, California. His wife, Shirley N. Pettis Roberson, replaces him in the House five days later.
August 3, 1976: Missouri Representative Jerry Litton (D). Litton dies in a plane crash in northwest Missouri. He was headed to a victory celebration after winning the Democratic nomination for state Senate.
September 1, 1983: Georgia Representative Larry McDonald (D). McDonald is killed when Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by a Russian fighter.
April 8, 1988: Montana Secretary of State Jim Waltermire (R). Waltermire is aboard a twin-engine plane that crashes as it approaches the Helena airport in light snow. At the time, Waltermire is a Republican candidate for governor.
August 7, 1989: Texas Representative Mickey Leland (D). Leland, a Texas Democrat who chairs the House Select Committee on Hunger, dies when his plane crashes during a trip to inspect relief efforts in Ethiopia.
August 13, 1989: Mississippi Representative Larkin Smith (R). Smith is a passenger in a Cessna 152 that crashes into a forest in southeastern Mississippi. Pilot error in foggy conditions is considered the probable cause of the accident.
April 4, 1991: Pennsylvania Senator John Heinz (R). A collision between a plane and a helicopter kills Heinz, a three-term Republican senator and heir to the Heinz food fortune.
April 5, 1991: Texas Senator John Tower (R). Tower, her daughter, and 21 others, including NASA astronaut Manley “Sonny” Carter Jr., die in a plane crash near Brunswick, Georgia.
April 19, 1993: South Dakota Governor George Mickelson (R). Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned turboprop plane crashes into a grain silo while attempting to make an emergency landing near Dubuque, Iowa.
April 3, 1996: Ron Brown, United States Secretary of Commerce. A U.S. Air Force plane carrying Brown and American business executives crashes into a mountain in Croatia, killing all 35 people on board.
October 16, 2000: Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan (D). Carnahan, his son, and an assistant are killed when their small plane crashes in bad weather. He is posthumously elected to the United States Senate and his widow is appointed to fill his seat.
October 25, 2002: Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone (D). Wellstone, his wife, daughter, three staff members, and two pilots are killed when their small plane crashes in Eveleth, Minnesota.
August 9, 2010: Former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (R). stevens dies in a plane crash near Dillingham, Alaska. Five people die and four survive, including former NASA chief Sean O'Keefe.
October 2, 2023 – North Dakota State Senator Doug Larsen (R). Larson, his wife and two children are killed in a plane crash while traveling in Utah, according to an announcement from the Grand County Sheriff's Office.
