Remembering the lives and history lost after Merriams bomber crash of 1944 [Video]

KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County. If you have a story idea to share, send Olivia an email.

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On July 26, 1944, a bomber plane took off from Lincoln, NE.

“Their mission was to calibrate their compass flight 7,000 feet within about 100 miles of the airfield. If everything was working well, they’d deployed to Europe,” said Andrew Gustafson from the Johnson County Museum.

That’s not what happened.

The pilot Kenneth Keech had family in the Merriam area. Keech decided to ‘buzz’ his family. Buzzing was a common occurrence then. It usually meant flying low, fast, and even doing some tricks over an area.

This caused the plane to crash.

“It ultimately destroyed several homes. The bomber was completely destroyed. There was a pretty large fire. Three people in the bomber were injured, three people in the neighborhood were injured, and three people in the …