Bo Rein - Death

Death

Following the 1979 season, Rein was hired away from NC State by Louisiana State University. In January 1980, Rein took a recruiting trip to Shreveport, Louisiana. On his January 10 return trip back to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, his private aircraft crashed leaving no survivors.

Rein and experienced pilot, Louis Benscotter, left Shreveport in a Cessna 441 aircraft. The flight was planned to be a 40-minute trip, but when Benscotter rerouted east to avoid a storm, air traffic control lost contact with him. The plane climbed to 40,000 feet and kept heading due east. After being tracked on radar, the plane was eventually intercepted by U.S. National Guard aircraft over North Carolina, a thousand miles off course and at an altitude of 41,600 feet, 6,600 feet higher than its maximum certified ceiling. The military pilots could not see anyone in the cockpit. The plane continued on over the Atlantic Ocean, where it crashed after running out of fuel. The military pilots spotted some debris, but no wreckage was ever recovered. The bodies of Rein and Benscotter were never found.

The cause of the crash is undetermined but was most likely cabin depressurization causing hypoxia, a lack of oxygen, resulting in the occupants losing consciousness.

In 1982, Rein's widow, Suzanne Kay, reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed amount after filing a $10 million damage suit against a number of defendants, including the Cessna Aircraft Company, Cruse Aviation Inc., who serviced the plane, and Nichols Construction Corporation, who owned it. Cessna later settled out of court with his widow for an undisclosed amount.

Out of respect, LSU paid for Rein's children's college educations at the universities of their choice. Former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes gave the eulogy at Rein's funeral in Niles, Ohio.

In 1980, Niles McKinley High School's famous Riverside Stadium was renamed "Bo Rein Memorial Stadium," in honor of one of Niles' greatest athletes and one of its most famous native sons.