TWA Lockheed L-1049 Constellation & United Douglas DC-8-11 - "Mid-air New York" - 1960

The terrible air tragedy occurred today over the skies of New York the plane crashed into the ground and broke into pieces causing several fires two huge passenger planes move over New York City today in the darkness of snow and rain supposedly flying on instruments of the AWA

constellation

carrying 45 people collided with the United Airlines dc8 jet carrying 83 people in

1960

The United States was in the middle of an aviation revolution, the era of commercial airliners had just begun and so had Did a series of tragic plane crashes on December 16,

1960

, two planes collided over New York City at the time it was the worst aviation disaster in history Hello, I'm Joe Witty and welcome to Disaster Chronicles in In this program we will meet the people who were at the scene, we will learn how the accident occurred and how it highlighted the need for more effective air safety systems and we will show you the latest safety device to avoid mid-air collisions, but first let's go back to that morning calamitous, it was a gray and cold December morning, it had been snowing and due to poor visibility the pilots were sailing under direction.

According to air traffic controllers, United Airlines Flight 826, a DCA aircraft similar to this one, left Chicago and was headed to New York's Idle Wild International Airport, known today as JFK Airport, and two Flight 266s, a Lockheed Constellation, a propeller plane originating in Dayton Ohio, its destination LaGuardia At the airport, both planes entered the airspace over New York City and just minutes before landing something went wrong, well, we heard this terrible commotion, this noise, This horrible noise and we thought the subway had exploded, the shells shook, the refrigerator stopped working and we heard something like that. of a noise there is a horrible noise like a m so yes and with that we saw like a color coming from the sky and we heard screams this is the Park Slope area of ​​Brooklyn one of the five burrows in New York City at 10: 37 Eastern In the morning, Eastern Standard Time, a plane shot out of the murky snow.

Laden Skies sliced ​​through a church steeple, crashed into the drab buildings of faded red brick and exploded and exploded again and exploded again almost instantly, an entire block was in flames, terrified people ran screaming. On the streets, the carnage they saw was only half of the worst disaster in the history of commercial aviation. The other plane landed here, 10 miles away, across New York Harbor on Staten Island. Several residents watched in shock as the Flaming tww plane fell to Earth. With 44 people on board, were there any signs of life? I saw a man's head sticking out of the wreckage and there was a large mass of fire that completely engulfed the plane and at that particular point, myself and three or four other men tried to get closer but the heat drove us back eyewitnesses at the scene facts on Staten Island report seeing jet parts of tww plane instead of pin Roll down falling Helter Skelter gasoline on fire surrounding it on the side of the crash densely populated in Brooklyn there were many witnesses to this plane It was on fire and there were people in cars and they screamed.

We saw this young man come running and his hair was sticking up in the air like he was petrified and he was all bleeding. He must have been injured. He must have been hit. something and he was running and he was petrified his mouth was open his eyes were bulging and his hair was up in a standing part he hit the corner of a building the building uh caught fire and then the plane fell On the ground I saw people moving inside trying to get out, the door in the tail of the plane was open and a woman started to get out and then there was a tremendous explosion and uh, she flew out of the plane and there was a little boy who had been blown up and hung on the tree and firefighters from all over the New York City fought The Blaze for over 2 hours for 15 minutes after the crash, the police and firefighters didn't even know they were dealing with the wreckage of a giant airliner they had no idea there were so many dead under the rubble you came here to the street to try to help how close could you get to the wreckage you couldn't get because it was too hot so you couldn't uh you couldn't get close to it you heard people screaming in the rubble yes I did it was a fire I thought all hell broke loose, it was like the ground had opened up and fires were burning where you couldn't see across the intersection when this was cleared, right in the middle of the 7th Avenue intersection at Sterling Place was the departure of the United Airlines plane shortly after the police arrived and began removing the bodies, but by that time they were just removing pieces of his arms, legs, uh, and various parts of his body, a Catholic school with more than 1,000 students had been bypassed by the plane that fell, did the pilot have any control of the plane? was trying to get to a meadow in a huge nearby park Crowds gathered around, there was great speculation, Fire Commissioner Ed Kavanaugh, and since he reached this point right on 7th Avenue, it would seem that probably the port wing, the left wing, it probably hit the top of this garage here and that was the end when it hit that garage, then it fell straight and the debris went into the church, the street and the surrounding buildings, but I imagine that was the first contact with the ground, the top of that garage, the fire pillar of the church, yes, it is not. that ironic name the church was completely destroyed it was feared that many bodies lay here under tons of rubble how could the two planes have been at the same altitude?

Could they have been in the same approach pattern? We'll get to the bottom of those questions. but first the rescue of the Sole Survivor, the dramatic story of a little boy's fight to live, is in critical condition with burns, internal injuries and broken bones, disaster. The chronicles continue at one point in A&E, they want you in the meeting with the client in you in two places at once so that you can't be held back by some pre-set limit on a bank card, not you, what you need is something that is behind you all the way in the car, the American Express card, do not leave home without joining The cause of the mid-air collision would take time first was the slow process of clearing the debris and searching for the dead .

Hundreds of rescue workers spent desperate hours sifting through the rubble. They had little luck. All that remains are the huge, tiny fragments of tragedy the huge blackened rudder standing upright in the street a burned and torn man's shoe trapped in the dirty snow near the remains of the passenger cabin a small baby harness unmarked by crash or fire and no name on its brass tag just a shipping bill in the waters between Staten Island and Brooklyn a massive search was underway for survivors and on Staten Island no bodies were found within a 4 mile radius from the main point of impact an officer's house about 3 miles from the scene became a morg as night fell the temperature dropped the water froze it was a cold scene of death and disaster 700 New York City police officers are removing to the occupants of a dozen buildings in the accident here in the Brooklyn Park Slope area.

Sent to spend the night in search of food and shelter at the nearby St. Augustine's Church, a strange white light from the searchlights illuminated the wreckage of the plane scattered over the snowy streets at the nearby Methodist Hospital. The associate director of nursing was EA Bonner, but they continued to search for survivors. And I think it was a terrible frustration that there were so few people. One Survivor's 11-year-old Steven Bolts was flying to New York without his parents. He was lying in the mud about 30 feet from the wreckage of the tail of the plane. According to eyewitnesses, he was calling his parents.

Three men climbed into the wreckage to get him out. The boy was coming to New York to join his mother and other members of the family. family for a Christmas vacation it was an incredible sight it was it was I mean it's a little boy fell from the sky and he was conscious totally conscious. He wasn't in the ER when he came in and I know you all know that our staff was absolutely delighted that someone found someone, Mr. Bals, how? You and Mrs. Bal feel that your son is the survivor. Well, we are grateful to the almighty for this miraculous thing that has happened to our son and we have great sympathy for all the people of U who were not so fortunate who lost their family and friends.

We, uh, give them all our deepest condolences. Tiana Callenberg was working at Methodist Hospital as a nurse when the boy was taken to the hospital. Everyone at the hospital was aware of what was happening. and that we had this kid here and everyone was really coming together to do everything they could, the patients, particularly that night, were exceptional because you would go into a patient's room to do something for them and they would say, oh, me. I'm fine, nurse, I'm fine, don't worry about me, take care of the child. 80% of the boy's body was burned. His left leg was broken.

Steven was drifting in and out of Consciousness but the injuries were too severe here. The lungs had been badly burned and after living for more than 26 hours after the accident the boy died he closed his eyes and went to sleep Hospital Chaplain Reverend Donald Stacy this little boy was important 130 or more people lost their lives in this tremendous disaster and If only we could have saved this little Spark, but I guess you don't win every battle, but you keep fighting, you keep fighting. God bless you all. The boy's father requested that the 65 cents found in the boy's pocket be put in the hospital pore box, later the coins became a plaque in memory of Steven that hangs today in the hospital chapel somehow u another seemed that this was a competition between the beast machine that flies in the air and the mind and soul of man disaster Chronicles continues in a moment on A&E disaster Chronicles continues on A&E in theory this collision in the air over New York was very little The planes were likely on different approach patterns that should have kept them safely separated by the Civil Aeronautics Board, a government agency that Before the National Transportation Safety Board began an investigation interviewing experts and eyewitnesses, when I looked over up and as I looked, the impact occurred right there, as I looked, the two hit each other and then this loud noise, no fire could tell which one. which direction the other plane was coming from the exact same direction the way it looked for me exactly the same plus the other investigations revealed that the United dc8 plane should have been in a holding pattern circling over Staten Island before continue its descent toward Idol Wild Airport, but the plane left its assigned airspace, descending rapidly and traveling at nearly 350 mph, approximately 100 m too fast.

Additionally, one of the navigation radios aboard the United plane was out of service, this accident emphasized the need for air traffic control and aircraft separation in 1960 Vern Taylor working for the Flight Safety Foundation investigated the accident which he believes was symptomatic of the times when near misses occurred more frequently it was a period of transition for the airline industry and the air traffic control system The air traffic control system was archaic, to say the least, in many ways. In 1960, air traffic controllers had no way of knowing for sure the exact altitude of a plane moments before accident controllers saw the United States on their radar screens, but they assumed a pilot was at a higher altitude. of United Airlines flying DCA Jets was interviewed on the day of the accident near accidents are or have been rather predominantly a part of this industry our group has worked very hard to try to get a little more recognition from the government of this real problem.

The pilots were reluctant to report near misses for fear of a reprimand and again there were other problems Vern Taylor on the aircraft side, they were moving from propeller driven aircraft to Jets and the new jet that was introduced somewhere in uh 58 59 uh was a new plane for many of the older pilots who had been flying for many years the flight characteristics were very different The jets were faster and heavier than propeller planes and the pilots had trouble slowing down the speed of large aircraft what could prevent such an accident today, the equipment would be different, they would certainly be under radar surveillance, both aircraft, but I imagine the big difference would be the altitude coding equipment on board of the planes today, they were given the exact position, the altitude, the speed, to know exactly where each plane was, they would have known today that bothPlanes were at the same flight level and one would have been told to turn right or left or whatever the controllers would have chosen to do, that would be the difference between the potential for mid-air collisions.

It hasn't gone away today, there is growing concern about crowded skies and for years there has been resistance to a warning system on board aircraft that alerts pilots to approaching planes. Many pilots have argued that the system does not work, that it is misleading and sounds false alarms, but TASS or traffic warning and collision avoidance system is today a legal requirement and is being installed on all commercial aircraft in 1960 Hillside Park Still in Brooklyn, a quiet neighborhood was torn apart and became the backdrop for a chaotic scene of death and destruction. Sterling Place on 7th Avenue More than 30 years later, life has returned to normal, and although most people who lived here in 1960 have moved away, some remain along with their memories of the tragic plane crash on the morning of the crash.

Larry Ross came running home from work. the trees were on fire and the last building there was, see, see, the last building was part diamonds, there were a lot of Point cars hereIf anything, they were completely lost and then Ross saw the rescue workers removing bodies and headed up the street to the house where his mother had been all morning. Well, I told you when I saw that I started crying because I was emotional, you know? I thought it was the end I thought it was the end for the friends and neighbors of another resident Peter Gallagher the accident was the end we had one of our neighbors Joe cisin was selling Christmas trees the Christmas season was approaching and ironically it was he He was a young man nice who was doing a Liv and selling some Christmas trees for a few days and died in the accident and then there was a dentist around the corner who was walking his dog and he was down here and just happened to be here and there was a worker sanitation worker doing his job of picking up trash and sanitation work in the neighborhood where he died as a result even today the physical appearance of the neighborhood bears the scars of the accident if you know where to look This was the garage they were using as a temporary morg and before they boarded it up, they kept bringing the stretchers here with the bodies they had recovered from various places, mainly from the place where the church was located.

Many, many bodies. The bodies were brought in in canvas Poly body bags. Those who have seen the bodies say they are charred beyond recognition. There aren't even any clothes left. This is the scene where the plane landed. What was here was the column of fire. The church was a huge five-story church. Church taller than the roof and occupied the area that is now a parking lot and the roof of the church was low and had a sloping roof but the steeples of the church exceeded the height of the building and this was it. It's a question of rubble and rubble here with the crash and the operation of the building, this was the assembly of pieces of tragedy, not all together to tell a story of heartbreak, the story is far from over, it continues tonight. and tomorrow, next week, there were many, many stories of tragedies where you wouldn't expect people to be involved in the work they were doing, you could understand someone doing a dangerous job as a police officer, a firefighter, a construction worker. bridges or someone who works. in skyscrapers but just walking down the streets you don't expect planes to fall from the sky in the end 138 people died it was an event that happened suddenly unexpectedly it was a shock to the Burina airline industry underlining the need for more sophisticated technologies safety systems for people present was a tragic moment that remains today a painful and lasting memory until the next time in the Disaster Chronicles I'm Joe Witty the