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One killed, one hurt as vintage plane collapses

The man who died and the injured 15-year-old were working on a museum's World War II-era plane when it fell on them.

TITUSVILLE - A retired Navy crew chief was killed and a teenage boy was critically injured when the landing gear of a World War II-era plane they were working on collapsed and the fuselage landed on them.

Michael McDonough, 76, died shortly after the accident Saturday at the Valiant Air Command's Warbird Museum at Space Center Executive Airport. The 15-year-old boy, whose name was not released, was in critical condition Sunday, police said.

McDonough and the boy were removing parts from a DC-3 for use on one of the museum's flagships, a C-47 called the Tico Belle . The DC-3's landing gear gave way and the plane collapsed on the pair. The C-47 is a version of the DC-3.

"Why it collapsed or how it collapsed is still under investigation," said Officer Warren Van Vuren, a spokesman for the Titusville Police Department.

McDonough's son, Michael, also a longtime member of the Valiant Air Command, said his father died in a "freak accident." He said his father was devoted to restoring the Tico Belle , which ferried troops on D-day.

"If he could have chosen the way he died, between a heart attack or (while working on) a C-47 plane, he would have chosen the C-47," Michael McDonough said. "How often can you say, "He died doing something he loved'?"

The elder McDonough served in the Navy from 1949 to 1952 and was a retired IBM computer engineer.

Ken Terry, the museum's operations officer, said the injured teenager was one of the few young people working at the museum, and volunteers had celebrated his 15th birthday last weekend with a cake in one of the hangars. Museum officials and police did not release the boy's name.

"He is one of the finest young men that we have working there," he said. "He is very interested in American history, and an extremely smart young man."

[Last modified May 9, 2005, 01:53:06]