The
1960 New York air disaster, also known as the
Park Slope Plane Crash, was a collision on December 16, 1960, between two
airlinerAn airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such aircraft are operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an aircraft intended for carrying multiple passengers in commercial...
s,
United AirlinesUnited Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
Flight 826 and
Trans World AirlinesTrans World Airlines was an American airline that existed from 1925 until it was bought out by and merged with American Airlines in 2001. It was a major domestic airline in the United States and the main U.S.-based competitor of Pan American World Airways on intercontinental routes from 1946...
Flight 266 over
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, in which Flight 266 crashed into
Staten IslandStaten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
and 826 into Park Slope,
BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. The crash killed all 128 people on the two airplanes and six on the ground.
Aircraft
United AirlinesUnited Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
Flight 826,
Mainliner Will Rogers, registration N8013U, was a
Douglas DC-8The Douglas DC-8 is a four-engined narrow-body passenger commercial jet airliner, manufactured from 1958 to 1972 by the Douglas Aircraft Company...
carrying 84 people en route from O'Hare Airport in Chicago to
New York International (Idlewild) AirportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
(now John F. Kennedy International) in
Howard Beach, QueensHoward Beach is a suburban neighborhood in the southwestern portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is bordered in the north by the Belt Parkway and South Conduit Avenue in Ozone Park, the south by Jamaica Bay in Broad Channel, the east by 102nd-104th streets, and the west by 78th...
. United had named the DC-8 jetliner after American entertainer
Will RogersWilliam "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
.
Trans World AirlinesTrans World Airlines was an American airline that existed from 1925 until it was bought out by and merged with American Airlines in 2001. It was a major domestic airline in the United States and the main U.S.-based competitor of Pan American World Airways on intercontinental routes from 1946...
Flight 266,
Star of Sicily, registration N6907C, was a
Lockheed Super ConstellationThe Lockheed Constellation was a propeller-driven airliner powered by four 18-cylinder radial Wright R-3350 engines. It was built by Lockheed between 1943 and 1958 at its Burbank, California, USA, facility. A total of 856 aircraft were produced in numerous models, all distinguished by a...
carrying 44 people en route from
DaytonDayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
and
Columbus, OhioColumbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, to New York's
LaGuardia AirportLaGuardia Airport is an airport located in the northern part of Queens County on Long Island in the City of New York. The airport is located on the waterfront of Flushing Bay and Bowery Bay, and borders the neighborhoods of Astoria, Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst. The airport was originally...
.
Accident
At 10:21 a.m.
Eastern TimeThe Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
United Airlines Flight 826 advised its company radio operator that one of its
VORVOR, short for VHF omnidirectional radio range, is a type of radio navigation system for aircraft. A VOR ground station broadcasts a VHF radio composite signal including the station's identifier, voice , and navigation signal. The identifier is typically a two- or three-letter string in Morse code...
receivers had stopped working (although they did not notify air traffic controllers of the problem), making it harder to navigate in
instrument conditionsInstrument flight rules are one of two sets of regulations governing all aspects of civil aviation aircraft operations; the other are visual flight rules ....
. At 10:25 a.m.
air traffic controlAir traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
issued a revised clearance for the flight to shorten its course to the Preston holding point (near
South Amboy, New JerseySouth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, on the Raritan Bay. As of the 2000 United States Census, the city population was 7,913.South Amboy, and Perth Amboy across the Raritan River, are collectively referred to as The Amboys...
) by 12 miles (19.3 km). Flight 826 was supposed to circle the holding point at an altitude of 5000 feet (1,524 m) at no more than 240 mph (107.3 m/s), but overshot the point. United later said a ground beacon was not working (pilots testified on both sides of the issue).
Weather conditions at the time were light rain and fog (which had been preceded by snowfall). According to information from Flight 826's
flight recorderA flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of an aircraft accident or incident. For this reason, flight recorders are required to be capable of surviving the conditions likely to be encountered in a severe aircraft...
(the first time a "black box" had been used to provide extensive details in a crash investigation), the plane was 12 miles (19.3 km) off course and for 81 seconds descended 3600 feet (1,097.3 m) a minute and slowed from more than 500 mile per hour when it collided with the right side of TWA Flight 266 at between 5250 and 5175 ft (1,600.2 and 1,577.3 m) in clouds about a mile west of
Miller FieldMiller Field was a United States Air Force facility on Staten Island, New York, in New Dorp. It was founded in November 1919 and completed in 1921...
, a military airfield on
Staten IslandStaten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
, at 10:33 a.m.
The TWA Constellation crashed onto the northwest corner of Miller Field with some sections of the aircraft landing in
New York HarborNew York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...
on the
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
side. As it spiraled down, it disintegrated and dropped at least one passenger into a tree in nearby New Dorp.
Later, a line of soldiers formed at one end of the field, searching the snowy ground for "bathtubs", blood red rimmed pits where human remains littered the field. As they marched across the ground they would shout out their discoveries, and the response was inevitably, "What have you got, a body, or a piece?" The bodies were brought back on stretchers, the pieces in bags.
Although witnesses speculated at the time that the crew of Flight 826 was attempting an emergency landing in
Prospect ParkProspect Park is a 585-acre public park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn located between Park Slope, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Kensington, Windsor Terrace and Flatbush Avenue, Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden...
, about 9 miles (14.5 km) away from the collision point, or at
LaGuardia AirportLaGuardia Airport is an airport located in the northern part of Queens County on Long Island in the City of New York. The airport is located on the waterfront of Flushing Bay and Bowery Bay, and borders the neighborhoods of Astoria, Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst. The airport was originally...
, there is no evidence the pilots had control of the DC-8 at any time after the collision. The crash left the remains of the aircraft pointed southeast towards a large open field at Prospect Park, only blocks from the crash site. A Catholic high school teacher from St. Augustine High School less than two blocks from the crash, testified at government hearings that he saw the faces of the pilots as the plane approached the school, and that the wing dipped to clear the school building just before the plane crashed. This teacher's testimony was featured in a front page article and photo in the defunct NY Herald Tribune newspaper at the time of the hearings. A student at the school, who lived in one of the destroyed apartment buildings on the block of the crash site, reported to classmates that his entire family was in the only room of their apartment not destroyed by the crash and they thus survived. The crash left a trench covering the most of the length of the pavement on Sterling Place in the middle of the street. It shook the school so violently that occupants thought that a bomb had gone off or the building's boiler had exploded. There was no audible voice radio contact with traffic controllers from either plane after the collision, although LaGuardia had begun tracking an incoming fast moving unidentified plane from Preston toward the LaGuardia "Flatbush" outer marker.
Flight 826 crashed into the
Park SlopePark Slope is a neighborhood in western Brooklyn, New York City's most populous borough. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush Avenue to the north, and 15th Street to the south, though other definitions are sometimes offered. Generally...
section of
BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Sterling Place, scattering wreckage and setting fire to ten brownstone apartment buildings, the Pillar of Fire Church, the McCaddin Funeral Home, a Chinese laundry and a delicatessen. Six people on the ground were killed, including Wallace E. Lewis, the church’s 90-year-old caretaker; Charles Cooper, a sanitation worker who was shoveling snow; Joseph Colacino and John Opperisano, who were selling Christmas trees on the sidewalk; Dr. Jacob L. Crooks, who was out walking his dog; and Albert Layer, the owner of the butcher shop located just off Seventh Avenue on Sterling Place.
Stephen Baltz
The only initial survivor of the tragedy was 11-year-old Stephen Baltz (born January 9, 1949) of
Wilmette, IllinoisWilmette is a village in New Trier Township, Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located north of Chicago's downtown district and has a population of 27,651. Wilmette is considered a bedroom community in the North Shore district...
. Baltz was traveling alone aboard Flight 826 to meet his mother and sister, who had flown to
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
the day before, while his father was due to join the family on a later flight. The family was planning to spend
ChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
in Yonkers with relatives.
Upon Flight 826's impact with the ground, Baltz was thrown from the plane into a
snowSnow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
bank, where local residents rolled him in the snow to extinguish his burning clothing. Though alive and conscious following the crash, he was badly burned and suffering from burning fuel aspiration.
Baltz was taken to
New York Methodist HospitalNew York Methodist Hospital is a hospital located in the historic brownstone neighborhood of Park Slope in Brooklyn, New York. between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, on Sixth Street. The hospital is a 651-bed voluntary, non-profit hospital and serves over 35,000 inpatients each year. Another 200,000...
, fifteen blocks from the crash site. From his hospital bed, he told rescuers that moments before the collision, he had looked out the window at the snow falling on the city:
- "It looked like a picture out of a fairy book. It was a beautiful sight."
Pictures of Baltz appeared on many front pages around the world such as the
Syracuse Post-StandardThe Post-Standard is the major daily newspaper servicing the greater Syracuse, New York, metro area. Affiliated with Syracuse.com, it is owned by Advance Publications. The Post-Standard features regular political commentary from Sean Kirst and local commentary by Dick Case. It is home-delivered in...
repeating a story from the Associated Press in which he expressed concern about his mother, who was waiting for him at the airport. He gave the only description of the crash:
- "I heard a big noise while we were flying. The last thing I remember was the plane falling."
Hospital staff were unaware that Baltz's lungs had been seared by burning jet fuel, a life-threatening condition, which was later revealed at autopsy. He died of pneumonia the next morning.
An 8-by-14 inch
commemorative plaqueA commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other vertical surface, and bearing text in memory of an important figure or event...
embossed with four
dimeThe dime is a coin 10 cents, one tenth of a United States dollar, labeled formally as "one dime". The denomination was first authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792. The dime is the smallest in diameter and is the thinnest of all U.S...
s and five
nickelThe nickel is a five-cent coin, representing a unit of currency equaling five hundredths of one United States dollar. A later-produced Canadian nickel five-cent coin was also called by the same name....
s on the rear wall in the hospital's Phillips Chapel memorializes Baltz. The coins were found in his pocket and placed in the chapel's donation box after his death by his father, an
Admiral CorporationAdmiral is an American appliance brand currently manufactured by Whirlpool Corporation. The brand is sold at The Home Depot.Ross Siragusa founded Continental Radio and Television Corp. as a maker of consumer electronics in Chicago during 1934. This later became Admiral Corp. Its annual sales were...
vice president.
During the week of 13 December 2010, the New York Times ran a series of articles to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the tragedy.
Aftermath
With a death toll of 134, the accident was the deadliest U.S. commercial aviation disaster at the time, topping the
1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collisionThe 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision occurred on Saturday, June 30, 1956 at 10:30 AM Pacific Standard Time when a United Airlines passenger airliner struck a Trans World Airlines airliner over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, resulting in the crash of both planes and 128 fatalities...
that killed 128. That collision also involved a TWA
Super ConstellationThe Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation is an aircraft in the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line. The aircraft was Lockheed's response to the successful Douglas DC-6 airliner and first flew in 1950...
and a Douglas aircraft (a
DC-7The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. It was the last major piston engine powered transport made by Douglas, coming just a few years before the advent of jet aircraft such as the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.-Design and...
) operated by United. There were 128 people aboard the two planes in both collisions.
Filmmaker and critic
Hollis FramptonHollis Frampton was an American avant-garde filmmaker, photographer, writer/theoretician, and pioneer of digital art.-Early years:Frampton was born March 11, 1936 in Wooster, Ohio...
was scheduled to be on the United flight, but decided to delay his return to New York for one day in order to see a retrospective of the work of
Edward WestonEdward Henry Weston was a 20th century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers…" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his forty-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of...
in Minneapolis; he said of this decision that he was "never...able to decide whether Weston tried to kill me, or saved my life."
Sir
Edmund HillarySir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE , was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest...
(one of the first two to conquer
Mount EverestMount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
) had also booked a seat on Flight 826, but missed the flight after arriving too late at O'Hare Airport.
A granite memorial in nearby
Green-Wood CemeteryGreen-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Brooklyn, Kings County , New York. It was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior.-History:...
(where United Airlines bought a plot to inter three unknown passengers on Flight 826 the same day of the crash) with all 134 victims listed was dedicated on the 50th anniversary of the crash, December 16, 2010. The memorial was paid for by the surviving family members.
United Airlines still uses Flight 826 today on its Guam-Tokyo (Narita) route.
External links
- Pillar of Fire: Recalling the Day the Sky Fell, December 16, 1960 by Nathaniel Altman, from the Park Slope Reader (broken link)
- Civil Aeronautics Board Aircraft Accident Report on the collision from the Department of Transport's Special Collections
- Death in the Air, Time, December 26, 1960.
- Newsreel film footage of crash, TheSmokingGun.com (broken link)
- New York Times article
- Park Slope Plane Crash, City Room (The New York Times local news blog), Sunday, December 12–Thursday, December 16, 2010 – A series of articles about the aviation disaster.
- CNN photo gallery of the crash
- Deadly Brooklyn Plane Crash, 1960 - slideshow by Life magazine
- Pillar of Fire - Interview with Dorothy M. Fletcher by Nathaniel Altman
- Fate or fluke? Air crash sole survivors by Barry Neild for CNN