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October 1990 TROOPER KILLED IN CRASH IS BREDA-AREA NATIVE IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - A 29 year-old man is being held on $600,000 bond today after being charged in the death of a state patrol trooper who died when his plane crashed as he was helping squad cars chase the suspect. Trooper Al Nieland of Iowa City was killed Sunday morning in the crash about five miles east of Williamsburg in Iowa County. Authorities said Nieland, 41, was helping to pursue a stolen vehicle that had been involved in a robbery in Poweshiek County. (Nieland is a native of the Breda area. His parents are Pat and Della (Wittry) Nieland. They moved to Manson several years ago. Nieland has several relatives in the area.).... According to Sandra Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration at Kansas City, Mo. Nieland's Cessna 172 had taken off from Cedar Rapids at about 7:20 a.m. and crashed at about 7:30 a.m. near the intersection of Interstate 80 and U.S. Highway 151. The intersection southwest of Cedar Rapids and west of Iowa City is the Interstate exit to the Amana Colonies. "The aircraft caught fire and was destroyed," Ms. Campbell said. She said her information was preliminary and that a cause of the crash had yet to be determined. Only one person was aboard the plane, she said. Nieland's plane crashed just 100 yards from a Super 8 motel. The motel is about a quarter-mile south of Interstate 80 and is one of several businesses in the area. Manger Barb Iburg said a bus-load of 42 people had just checked out before the crash but another 80 people were still in their rooms. "It was awfully close to here," she said. "I had some friends staying in a camper in back of the motel. They thought it was going to crash on top of them." "They said they heard the plane's engine quit twice and then it kicked back in," she said. "They said it was flying low." Hope Gingerich of Wellman was the front desk clerk when the plane crashed. She said the head maid ran to the desk and told her a plane had crashed.... Word of Nieland's death reached the congregation at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Iowa City, where his wife, Julie, was at the 8:15 a.m. service. She was escorted from the service when told her husband had been involved in a plane crash. "This morning sadness hit us," pastor Robert Bailey told the congregation at a late morning service. "May we all learn to number our days." Bailey said Nieland was a devout man noted for his good singing voice. Friends at the church said he always carried a bible. Nieland sang in the Good News Singers, a small church choir, and had served as a church elder, Bailey said. "Al had a beautiful tenor- voice that we loved to listen to. This is hard for me," the pastor said. Nieland became a state trooper in 1982, after serving a year as a security officer at the State Capitol. He is survived by his wife, Julie, and sons age 4 and 1 in Iowa City, in addition to two teen-age daughters from a previous marriage. |
Allen Patrick Nieland 1949-1990