John Warren Rogers, the pilot who died Thursday when his airplane crashed north of Council Bluffs, headed Westchester Capital Management, an Omaha investment advisory firm and brokerage.
“He was a very, very smart, energetic individual,” said Randall Greer, who had worked with Rogers at Westchester and earlier at the Omaha investment firm Kirkpatrick, Pettis, Smith and Polian, starting in about 1975.
“He was very successful. He was our top-performing broker when he left to form his own firm,” Greer said. “He was an expert pilot and used the plane for business, to see his clients. He loved working with his clients.”
Rogers' flight plan listed Trinidad, Colorado, and Chandler Arizona, as destinations, authorities said. Greer said he had taken flights with Rogers as the pilot, and he was an excellent pilot.
“He had quite a few clients in western Nebraska and elsewhere, and he would use the plane to go visit them,” Greer said. “It's very sad.”
The Piper Malibu Meridian single-engine plane Rogers was flying crashed on the median of Interstate 29 shortly after it took off from Eppley Airfield at 11:51 a.m. Thursday, authorities said. Rogers had radioed to the airport that he was having plane trouble and requested an emergency landing.
The aircraft was flying low when it struck power lines and then crashed, witnesses said.
Rogers, 65, was chairman, president and chief executive of Westchester, the investment firm he started in the mid-1980s after leaving Kirkpatrick Pettis. The company lists a staff of eight, including his son, James. The family could not be reached immediately for comment.
Rogers graduated from the Iowa State University's School of Architecture and studied finance with the Securities Industry Institute and the Wharton School of Business.
He was a governor of the Iowa State University Foundation, a lifetime title that indicates he was a supporter of the university. He had served on the foundation's development, stewardship and investment committees and was past president of the College of Design's advancement council, an advisory group.
He was a member of the Omaha-Lincoln Society of Financial Analysts.
He also was co-owner of an aircraft charter company and served as its pilot, according to information filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and also was co-owner of an Island Packet sailboat. Greer said Rogers took sailing trips in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker said Rogers was dead when authorities reached the small plane.
Darrell Wade of Highlandville, Missouri, said he was driving south on I-29 when he saw the plane flying low above train tracks next to the northbound lane of I-29.
"He was following the railroad and then took a hard right," Wade said. "His wing clipped a power line, and I told my friends, 'That plane's going to crash.'"
After the crash, Wade, an off-duty police officer and former firefighter, said he stopped to check on the pilot and was unable to find a pulse.
Rogers' body still was in the plane hours after the crash as authorities waited for federal investigators to arrive.
The crash occurred near the 57-mile marker on I-29.
At least three power lines were cut when the plane went down. One closed the outside lane of northbound I-29 for an hour. Danker said Mid-American Energy was on the scene quickly to repair the loose wires. According to the utility, the downed wires cut power to 1,258 customers from 11:58 a.m. until 1:09 p.m.
After striking the power lines, the plane cartwheeled and crashed nose first into the I-29 median, flipping and coming to rest on its roof, the Sheriff's Office said.
Later, investigators from the FAA arrived Thursday and began their investigation into the cause of the crash. Officials said they expected the NTSB to be on scene Friday to begin its investigation. The plane was removed from the scene Friday.
Danker said the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Office, Council Bluffs Police Department, Council Bluffs Fire Department, Iowa State Patrol, Iowa Department of Transportation, Pottawattamie County medical examiner, Pottawattamie County Emergency Management Agency, Crescent Fire Department and Omaha Airport Authority Fire and Rescue Department were on the scene.
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