Former business owner dies in plane crash

The former owner of a crop spraying business in Winner died Monday, June 8, in a plane crash outside of Kadoka.

Joseph Schneller, 49, Keystone, owned Semper Fi Aviation in Winner for a couple of years.

Schneller was a former Rapid City police officer and a U.S. Marine.

According to a story in the Rapid City Journal, Schneller had just taken off from the Kadoka Municipal Airport at 4:18 p.m. in his alfalfa crop dusting plane when the aircraft apparently had a mechanical failure said Jackson County sheriff Ray Clements Jr.

Witnesses saw the plane rising, then saw the right wing dip suddenly.

The plane crashed across the road from the airport along a sports field fence on the east side of town.

Federal investigators reviewed the crash site June 8 to determine the cause of the crash.