Rockne died in the crash of a Transcontinental & Western Air airliner in Kansas on March 31 , 1931 , while '' en route '' to participate in the production of the film '' The Spirit of Notre Dame '' ( released October 13 , 1931 ) . He had stopped in Kansas City to visit his two sons , Bill and Knute Jr. , who were in boarding school there at the Pembroke-Country Day School . A little over an hour after taking off from Kansas City , one of the Fokker Trimotor 's wings broke up in flight . The cause of the breakup was determined to be that the plane 's plywood outer skin was bonded to the ribs and spars with water-based aliphatic resin glue , and flight in rain had caused the bond to deteriorate to the point that sections of the plywood suddenly separated in flight . The plane crashed into a wheat field near Bazaar , Kansas , killing Rockne and seven others
crash of a Transcontinental & Western Air airliner
1931 Transcontinental & Western Air Fokker F-10 crash
Knute Rockne