WKU distinguished alumnus involved in plane crash in Todd County

MAJ. GEN. JERRY HUMBLE/alumni.wku.edu

Elliott Pratt

A retired Marine who is a member of WKU’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni survived a small plane crash about 5 p.m. Tuesday in Todd County, according to the Kentucky State Police Post 2.

WKU alumnus Maj. Gen. Jerry D. Humble was a passenger on the plane, a 1946 Stinson Model 108 piloted by Todd County Circuit Court Judge Tyler Gill. Both men survived with only minor injuries. They were treated and released from Gateway Medical Center in Clarksville, Tenn.

According to Humble’s wife Margaret, also a WKU graduate, there was an “undetermined loss of power” on the plane’s third takeoff in a series of touch-and-go landings that caused the plane to crash in a cornfield in Elkton.

Margaret Humble said both men were treated and released.

“Both are OK, they’re sore and a little banged up,” Margaret Humble said. “They were released last night from their respective emergency rooms and they’re just fine.”

Jerry Humble retired as a two-star general in the United States Marine Corps in 2003.

A member of the WKU Class of 1969, Humble was inducted into the Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 2004 and serves on the W-Club board of directors. In 1996, he was recognized by the national Sigma Chi fraternity headquarters as a significant Sigma Chi member at WKU.