On August 31, 1969, a Cessna 172 crashed in Newton, Iowa, killing former world heavyweight champion boxer Rocky Marciano and two others.

[1] On Sunday, August 31, 1969 at 8:05 pm CDT, the Cessna 172 with registration number N3149X crashed in a pasture near Newton, Iowa,[1][2] approximately thirty miles (50 km) east of Des Moines.

It had departed from Chicago Midway Airport at 6 pm (1800 hrs) and was en route to Des Moines, where Marciano was to celebrate his 46th birthday at a party the next day.

Belz decided to head to Newton instead of continuing to Des Moines as planned, to avoid the bad weather.

While trying to land at Newton the aircraft entered low cloud, attempted an overshoot and the pilot lost control, impacting a lone oak tree in a corn field.