Brad DeBow, manager of Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg, lost a respected colleague when Danny Joe Summers’ World War II era AD-4N Skyraider crashed on Tuesday. DeBow is uncertain what will happen with the four vintage airplanes owned by Summers that the museum has on display.

    Perhaps more importantly, he knows the museum has lost an advocate, knowledgeable volunteer and irreplaceable resource in Summers.

    Twin Falls County Search and Rescue workers found two Wednesday bodies at the site of the crash by the Idaho-Nevada border. The victims have been tentatively identified as Summers, 55, of Sugar City, and Jodi Wyatt, 47, of Rexburg, according to the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office.

    DeBow said Summers assisted with making his aircraft and himself available for the aviation museum, located at 400 Airport Road.

    “(Summers) was a major part of our museum. He had five aircraft based at Rexburg and displayed them,” DeBow said, adding the fifth warbird was the Skyraider destroyed by the crash. “He’s a great man and we hate to lose him this way.”

    DeBow said the museum opened in 2006 with about 15-20 warbirds and other planes that cycle through the museum. DeBow noted the collection is quite large for a city as small as Rexburg. Many of the aircraft have history associated with them, and part of the museum experience is showing and telling visitors about them.

    He said Summers’ five planes have rotated frequently in the museum, and Summers often gave visitors personal tours including the history of his Douglas A-1E Skyraider, TBM Avenger Navy torpedo bomber, North American SNJ-5 Texan, Boeing Stearman and AD-4N Skyraider.

    DeBow hasn’t yet received word about Summers’ family’s plans for the aircraft.

    One of the greater questions, is what went wrong on Summers’ last flight, but for now DeBow said “we don’t know yet.”

    “Danny was a superb pilot,” DeBow said. “He went out of his way to keep his aircraft in superb condition. He was a big part of our museum, showing the history of significant aircraft to people and flying in air shows.”

    Even if Summers’ planes go elsewhere , DeBow said it “won’t effect our museum operations.”

    “We have a significant number of aircraft and are all airworthy,” he said.

    Summers’ A-1E Skyraider was one of the last airplanes to leave Saigon, Vietnam, at the end of the Vietnam War. Summers’ TBM Avenger sank two Japanese ships during WWII.

    “They have a great historical background and (I) enjoy watching them in our museum,” DeBow said. “We’d greatly miss the planes if they end up going away.”

    Summers was a Sugar City native who made his living as a potato farmer. Information about his warbirds can be viewed at the museum’s website, www.legacyflightmuseum.com.

    — The Idaho Falls Post Register staff contributed to this report.