1960 New York mid-air collision: Difference between revisions
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==Initial survivor== |
==Initial survivor== |
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The only person to initially survive the crash was an 11-year-old boy from [[Wilmette, Illinois]]. He was traveling on Flight 826 unaccompanied as part of his family's plans to spend Christmas in [[Yonkers]] with relatives. He was thrown from the plane into a snowbank where his burning clothing was extinguished. Although alive and conscious, he was badly burned and had inhaled burning fuel.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> He died of [[pneumonia]] the next day.<ref>{{cite news |last=Perlmutter |first=Emanuel |title=Boy Who Survived Crash Dies; 'Stevie Tried Hard,' Father Says |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=18 December 1960 |page=49}}</ref> |
The only person to initially survive the crash was Stephen Baltz, an 11-year-old boy from [[Wilmette, Illinois]]. He was traveling on Flight 826 unaccompanied as part of his family's plans to spend Christmas in [[Yonkers]] with relatives. He was thrown from the plane into a snowbank where his burning clothing was extinguished. Although alive and conscious, he was badly burned and had inhaled burning fuel.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> He died of [[pneumonia]] the next day.<ref>{{cite news |last=Perlmutter |first=Emanuel |title=Boy Who Survived Crash Dies; 'Stevie Tried Hard,' Father Says |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=18 December 1960 |page=49}}</ref> |
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==Legacy== |
==Legacy== |
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Revision as of 22:33, 22 August 2021
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| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 16 December 1960 |
| Summary | Mid-air collision |
| Site | About a mile west of Miller Field 40°34′07″N 74°07′19″W / 40.56861°N 74.12194°W |
| Total fatalities | 134 |
| Total injuries | 0 |
| Total survivors | 0 |
| First aircraft | |
 N8010U, a sister-ship to the accident aircraft | |
| Type | Douglas DC-8-11 |
| Name | Mainliner Will Rogers |
| Operator | United Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | UA826 |
| ICAO flight No. | UAL826 |
| Call sign | UNITED 826 |
| Registration | N8013U |
| Flight origin | Chicago-O'Hare International Airport (ORD/KORD), IL |
| Destination | Idlewild Airport (IDL/KIDL)(Now John F. Kennedy International Airport), New York City |
| Occupants | 84 |
| Passengers | 77 |
| Crew | 7 |
| Fatalities | 84 (83 initially) |
| Injuries | 0 (1 initially) |
| Survivors | 0 (1 initially) |
| Second aircraft | |
 N6907C, the Lockheed L-1049A Super Constellation involved. | |
| Type | Lockheed L-1049A Super Constellation |
| Name | Star of Sicily |
| Operator | Trans World Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | TW266 |
| ICAO flight No. | TWA266 |
| Call sign | TWA 266 |
| Registration | N6907C |
| Flight origin | Dayton International Airport (DAY/KDAY), Dayton, Ohio |
| Stopover | Port Columbus International Airport (CMH/KCMH), Ohio |
| Destination | LaGuardia Airport KLGA New York |
| Occupants | 44 |
| Passengers | 39 |
| Crew | 5 |
| Fatalities | 44 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Ground casualties | |
| Ground fatalities | 6 |
On Friday, December 16, 1960, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8, bound for Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York City, collided in midair with a TWA Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation descending into the city's LaGuardia Airport.[1] The Constellation crashed on Miller Field in Staten Island and the DC-8 into Park Slope, Brooklyn, killing all 128 people on the two aircraft and six people on the ground. It was the deadliest aviation disaster in the world at the time. The death toll would not be surpassed until a Lockheed C-130B Hercules was shot down in May 1968, killing 155 people.[2] In terms of commercial aviation, the death toll would not be surpassed until the March 1969 crash of Viasa Flight 742, which crashed on takeoff and killed all 84 people on board the aircraft, as well as 71 people on the ground.[3] The accident became known as the Park Slope plane crash or the Miller Field crash,[4] after the crash sites of each plane respectively. The accident was also the first hull loss and first fatal accident involving a Douglas DC-8.[5][6]
Aircraft and crews
United Airlines Flight 826, Mainliner Will Rogers, registration N8013U,[7] was a DC-8-11 carrying 84 people from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago to Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) in Queens. The crew was Captain Robert Sawyer (age 46), First Officer Robert Fiebing (40), Flight Engineer Richard Pruitt (30), and four stewardesses.[1]
Trans World Airlines Flight 266, Star of Sicily, registration N6907C,[8] was a Super Constellation carrying 44 people from Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, to LaGuardia Airport in Queens. The crew was Captain David Wollam (age 39), First Officer Dean Bowen (32), Flight Engineer LeRoy Rosenthal (30), and two stewardesses.[1][9] Star of Sicily's sister ship N6902C, Star of the Seine, was destroyed in another mid-air collision with a United Airlines flight in 1956.[citation needed]
Background
At 10:21 A.M. Eastern Time, United 826 advised ARINC radio — which relayed the message to UAL maintenance — that one of its VOR receivers had stopped working. ATC, however, was not told that the aircraft had only one receiver, which made it more difficult for the pilots of flight 826 to identify the Preston intersection, beyond which it had not received clearance.
At 10:25 A.M. Eastern Time, air traffic control issued a revised clearance for the flight to shorten its route to the Preston holding point (near Laurence Harbor, New Jersey) by 12 miles (19 km). That clearance included holding instructions (a standard race-track holding pattern) for UAL Flight 826 when it arrived at the Preston intersection. Flight 826 was expected to reduce its speed before reaching Preston, to a standard holding speed of 210 knots or less. However, the aircraft was estimated to be doing 301 knots when it collided with the TWA plane, several miles beyond that Preston clearance limit.
During the investigation, United claimed the Colts Neck VOR was unreliable (pilots testified on both sides of the issue).[10] ("Preston" was the point where airway V123 — the 050-radial off the Robbinsville VOR — crossed the Solberg 120-degree radial and the Colts Neck 346-degree radial.) However, the CAB final report found no problem with the Colts Neck VOR.
The prevailing conditions were light rain and fog (which had been preceded by snowfall).
Collision and ground impacts
According to the DC-8's FDR, the aircraft was 12 miles (19 km) off course and for 81 seconds, had descended at 3,600 feet per minute (18 m/s) while slowing from more than 400 knots to 301 knots at the time of the collision.
One of the starboard engines on the DC-8 hit the Constellation just ahead of its wings, tearing apart that portion of the fuselage. The Constellation entered a dive, with debris continuing to fall as it disintegrated during its spiral to the ground.
The initial impact tore the engine from its pylon on the DC-8. Having lost one engine and a large part of the right-wing, the DC-8 remained airborne for another minute and a half.
The DC-8 crashed into the Park Slope section of Brooklyn at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Sterling Place (40°40′38″N 73°58′25″W / 40.67709°N 73.97368°W), 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.[11][1]
The crash left the remains of the DC-8 pointed southeast towards a large open field at Prospect Park, blocks from its crash site. An occupant one of the affected apartment buildings said his family survived because they happened to be in the only room of their apartment not destroyed. The crash left a trench covering most of the length of the middle of Sterling Place. Witnesses thought a bomb had gone off or that a building's boiler had exploded.
The TWA plane crashed onto the northwest corner of Miller Field, at 40°34′12″N 74°06′11″W / 40.57°N 74.103°W, with some sections of the aircraft landing in New York Harbor. At least one passenger fell into a tree before the wreckage hit the ground.[10][1]
There was no 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.[12]
Investigation
The likely cause of the accident was identified in a report by the US Civil Aeronautics Board.
United Flight 826 proceeded beyond its clearance limit and the confines of the airspace allocated to the flight by Air Traffic Control. A contributing factor was the high rate of speed of the United DC-8 as it approached the Preston intersection, coupled with the change of clearance which reduced the en-route distance along Victor 123 by approximately 11 miles.[1]
Initial survivor
The only person to initially survive the crash was Stephen Baltz, an 11-year-old boy from Wilmette, Illinois. He was traveling on Flight 826 unaccompanied as part of his family's plans to spend Christmas in Yonkers with relatives. He was thrown from the plane into a snowbank where his burning clothing was extinguished. Although alive and conscious, he was badly burned and had inhaled burning fuel.[11] He died of pneumonia the next day.[13]
Legacy
In 2010, on the 50th anniversary of the accident, a memorial to the 134 victims of the two crashes was unveiled in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn. The cemetery is the site of the common grave in which were placed the human remains that could not be identified.[14][15]
The collision is covered in the first episode of the fifth season of The Weather Channel documentary series Why Planes Crash.[16] The episode, titled "Collision Course", first aired in April 2013.[16]
See also
- List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
- Jonas Kamlet, a chemist who died in the crash
- United Airlines Flight 718, another United aircraft that collided with TWA Flight 2 over the Grand Canyon in 1956
References
- ^ a b c d e f "UNITED AIR LINES, INC, DC-8, N8013U, AND TRANS WORLD AIRLINES, INC., CONSTELLATION 1049A, N6907C, NEAR STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 16, 1960" (PDF). archive.org. Civil Aeronautics Board. 18 June 1962. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
- ^ Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Lockheed C-130B Hercules 60-0297 Kham Duc". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
- ^ Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 YV-C-AVD Maracaibo". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ "Park Slope Plane Crash". The New York Times. 16 December 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
- ^ Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Douglas DC-8-11 N8013U New York, NY". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- ^ Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation N6907C Miller Army Air Station, NY". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- ^ "FAA Registry (N8013U)". Federal Aviation Administration.
- ^ "FAA Registry (N6907C)". Federal Aviation Administration.
- ^ "1960 plane collision over NYC spurred improvements". Associated Press. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- ^ a b Witkin, Richard (10 January 1961). "High Speed Laid to Jet in Crash. Inquiry Told Craft Overshot Circle Area at 500 M.P.H". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
The jet airliner in the 16 December collision here was traveling more than 500 miles an hour when it swept past its assigned circling point, an official inquiry was told yesterday.
- ^ a b Disaster in Fog — New York Times — 17 December 1960
- ^ Excerpts of Tape Conversations at Time of Air Crash — New York Times — 22 December 1960
- ^ Perlmutter, Emanuel (18 December 1960). "Boy Who Survived Crash Dies; 'Stevie Tried Hard,' Father Says". The New York Times. p. 49.
- ^ admin (16 December 2010). "New York - New Monument Marks 1960 Brooklyn Air Crash". Vos Iz Neias. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
- ^ staff/jen-carlson (16 December 2010). "Memorial Is Unveiled For 1960s Park Slope Plane Crash". Gothamist. Retrieved 3 October 2020.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b Sommers, Caroline (27 April 2013). Why Planes Crash (TV Documentary) (Collision Course ed.). The Weather Channel: NBC Peacock Productions.
External links
- Pillar of Fire: Recalling the Day the Sky Fell, December 16, 1960 by Nathaniel Altman, from the Park Slope Reader
- U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board Aircraft Accident Report
- Accident description TWA Super Constellation L-1049 N6907C
- Accident description United Airlines DC-8-11 N8013U
- Pre-crash photo of N6907C
- Death in the Air, Time, 26 December 1960.
- Newsreel film footage of crash
- Nelson, Libby. "The Boy Who Survived a 1960 Midair Crash" (Archive). The New York Times. 30 June 2009.
- "127 die as 2 airliners collide over the city; jet sets Brooklyn fire, killing 5 others; the second plane crashes on Staten Island" (Archive). The New York Times. Vol CX. No. 37,583. Saturday 17 December 1960.
- 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
- Jamieson, Wendell (24 March 2002). "The Day the Boy Fell From the Sky". The New York Times.
- "Park Slope Plane Crash". The New York Times. 12–16 December 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
- "1960 New York City plane crash: A look back". – slideshow by New York Daily News
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