Plane Crash That Killed Former Rockford Mormon Leader Under Federal Investigation amid Sex Abuse Lawsuit

An 83-year-old man died when the light aircraft he was piloting crashed into a residential area near Poplar Grove, in northern Illinois, on February 14. The crash, which occurred between McHenry County and Rockford, narrowly avoided nearby homes but severed a gas line and caused brief evacuations of the neighborhood, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and witness reports.

The pilot, identified as Richard McClung of Rockford, was pronounced dead at the scene. He was the sole occupant of the “experimental, amateur-built” single-engine Tailwind. NTSB officials stated that McClung had just left a local fly-in event at Cottonwood Airport and was returning to Poplar Grove Airport at the time of the accident. He was not in radio contact with air traffic control, and witnesses described hearing the plane’s engine unusually loud before it entered a steep nosedive and crashed between two homes, damaging a fence and embedding the engine several feet into the ground.

McClung's fatal crash came amid his involvement as a defendant in a pending federal lawsuit in Chicago, which accuses him of sexually abusing a minor while serving as a leader in a local congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 2000s. The lawsuit alleges that church leaders were aware of misconduct allegations but failed to act, allowing McClung continued access to children at the Rockford congregation. The church, which is also named as a defendant, has denied any wrongdoing. Legal representatives for the parties have declined public comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

Records confirm that McClung was convicted of sexual abuse of a minor in 2007 and again in 2014, leading to probation, prison time, and his excommunication from the church. The federal lawsuit remains active, with court records indicating additional allegations that local and national LDS officials failed to respond adequately to warning signs and prior charges against McClung.

As of now, the official cause of the crash is undetermined pending final NTSB and coroner reports. The investigation into the circumstances of both the plane crash and the institutional handling of sexual abuse allegations continues.