It was a scheduled trip with her father that Melanie Critchfield, a couple weeks shy of her 7th birthday in November 1965, had been excited about for weeks and weeks.

Her father, Dr. Jared Bernard Critchfield, had gotten together with some other high-profile BYU football boosters in 1964 to form the Cougar Club , and had chartered a flight on Salt Lake City-based Edde Airlines to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to watch BYU play for its first-ever conference championship against the Lobos on Nov. 27, 1965.

“My dad took a child with him every time he flew, and I was finally old enough to go with him. It was going to be my first time flying. I was so, so excited,” she said.

However, the day after Thanksgiving, Melanie woke up to her father’s hand on her forehead. She had a high fever, tonsilli

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