50 Years Ago Today, and I was (almost) There

[boom3]

Yall have expressed an interest in history, and this is an event I have a personal connection to:

On this date in 1960, my family was living at Ft. Wadsworth on Staten Island, New York. Ft. Wadsworth was the SAM base protecting lower New York harbor. My father was the Post Engineer (Army) and also PE for Miller Field, which was a small grass strip for light planes used, at that time, for Govt. VIP shuttles between New York, D.C., etc. We had moved from Miller Field to Ft. Wadsworth shortly before. The two bases were perhaps two or three miles apart.

I was upstairs in my room when I heard a boom like distant thunder. My mother heard it downstairs too, and thought I had pulled a piece of furniture over on myself, as my brother had once. She came to the stairs and hollered at me. I replied that I was OK but that "it was a big noise" (FYI had just turned 5).

Just then the phone rang. It was the Army wife who had moved

into our former house on Miller Field. She was, to put it mildly, upset. No, let's say, hysterical. Pieces of airplane and bodies were falling out of the sky all around her. One airplane motor landed in the side yard of our former house, about 50 feet away. Her husband was an Army pilot for one of those VIP shuttles and he was flying that day. As it turned out, he was elsewhere.

In brief, a DC-8 (jet) collided with a Super Constellation (propeller driven) airliner over Miller Field. The Connie disintegrated over the field, missing houses, as noted, by barely yards. The DC-8 continued on in to New York. At the time it was thought the pilot was trying to make it to LaGuardia airport or perhaps a park to make an emergency landing, but that has been since discounted.

The DC-8 cartwheeled into a neighborhood in Brooklyn, killing 6 people on the ground. The only surviving passenger was a boy who died the next morning.134 people died, a record

for that time that stood for several years.

My father directed the clean up at Miller Field. He said it was worse than anything he'd seen in World War II. He kept (which would be illegal today, of course) some plastic serving ware from the Connie, but my mother and teenage sister thought it was "creepy" and prevailed on him to throw them away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_New_York_air_disaster

[Chris A]

It's been 25 years since Delta Flight 191 landed on Texas Highway 114 (briefly), regained flight, then cartwheeled into a storage tank at D/FW airport (microburst-induced). One friend of mine was a reporter for UPI that arrived on the scene.

She left journalism after that, suffering from PTSD symptoms.

I can only imagine the effect on a 5-year-old.

Chris

[dtel]

I had no idea, think how much worse it could have been with all those parts falling in neighborhoods. Also yo could have been living in the other house when it happened, your memory of the accident would have been much different.

[tube fanatic]

It's difficult to forget traumatic experiences. On November 12, 2001 Flight 587 out of Kennedy Airport crashed in the Belle Harbor section of Rockaway Beach, NY. The day before, I was a half block from the site of the crash. Even at my age, thinking about the possibilities is unpleasant.................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGDMnGNbw3A

[BigStewMan]

back in the 80s, aeromexico jet crashed into a neighborhood in southern california, less than five miles from where i was living at the time. worked two plane crashes in the Coast Guard, including Alaska Airlines, Flight 261 in January 2000.

[boom3]

First, thanks for the replies. Second, sorry about the huge single paragraph. Safari does that with this Forum while IE does not.

In that day, small children were somewhat shielded from most tragedies like that. TV was very circumspect about what they showed, and adults tended to speak carefully about certain topics around kids. When my own nieces and nephews were little I rediscovered how to spell out words and to use synonyms and foreign phrases-like "nacht fur kinder". I was certainly aware there had been a crash, and that people had died, but it was all still kind of abstract to a little kid. I knew my grandmother had recently "gone to be with Jesus" but the real meaning of that was still some years off.

The funny thing is, now I have to spell certain words around the cats...like "v-e-t" and "let's clean the e-a-r-s."

[sunburnwilly]

First, thanks for the replies. Second, sorry about the huge single paragraph. Safari does that with this Forum while IE does not.

For breaks with Safari use left arrow , slash , p , right arrow . I can't type out how it will actually look without it turning into a break . Somebody using IE can though .

[Arkytype]

In the early morning hours of March 12, 1960 our family was awakened by a huge explosion. I raced to the window and looked up to see a long silvery object fluttering to the ground. Turns out it was a wing from a B-47 that exploded at about 3,000 feet altitude shortly after takeoff from the Little Rock Air Force base.

Three crew members and a couple of civilians perished in the crash. There was a 30-foot wide six-foot deep burning crater in front of a friend's home which was a couple of miles away. Someone said, "There might be a nuclear bomb in there!" Everyone standing around the crater dutifully stepped back a few feet.

Lee

[T2K]

Warm human brain matter laying on a cold early morning ground punctuated by a rising light steam is hard to forget. As is a big stout burly man's man passionately begging you for your help when you can render none just moments before he succumbs. I, unfortunately, was there. And I wish I could forget it.

Life is precious. Be greedy and enjoy as much of it as you can.

Merry Christmas and Good Health to all here.

Keith

[Chris A]

I can see my upcoming new year's resolution:

"...Don't fly anymore..."

Apologies in advance to my pilot friends here and elsewhere...

Chris

[boom3]

First, thanks for the replies. Second, sorry about the huge single paragraph. Safari does that with this Forum while IE does not.

For breaks with Safari use left arrow , slash , p , right arrow . I can't type out how it will actually look without it turning into a break . Somebody using IE can though .

OK, Willy, let's see if this works.

Is this going to be a sep paragraph/p

Let me post it and see

[boom3]

well, guess not, I'm not doing something right here. I will ask my Mac Tech Support later.