[Sharon]

The Park Slope plane crash refers to a tragic aviation accident that occurred on December 16, 1960, in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. During the incident, two airplanes collided in mid-air, resulting in a devastating crash that claimed the lives of all 128 people on board the aircraft and six individuals on the ground. It remains one of the deadliest aviation accidents in U.S. history.

The two planes involved in the collision were a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation. The United flight, operating as Flight 826, was en route from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York. The TWA flight, known as Flight 266, was flying from Dayton, Ohio, to LaGuardia Airport in New York.

The collision occurred when the United DC-8, while on its final approach to Idlewild Airport, descended into the flight path of the TWA Super Constellation. The two aircraft collided over Park Slope, causing a massive explosion and debris to rain down onto the residential neighborhood below. Tragically, all 128 passengers and crew members on both planes perished, along with six individuals on the ground who were killed by falling debris and the resulting fires.

[Sharon]

This occured 53 years ago this very day

[Photoplay]

great post

[MisterX]

interesting

[bigjoe]

Pillar of Fire Church?

[jbarroso]

If I´m not mistaken there was a boy that survived from one of the planes, but died shortly after, a book was written by Geraldo Rivera, can´t remember the name.

[Photoplay]

Contribution:

Stephen Baltz
The only initial survivor of the tragedy was 11-year-old Stephen Lambert Baltz (born January 9, 1949) of Wilmette, Illinois. He was travelling alone aboard Flight 826 to meet his mother and sister, who had flown to New York the day before, while his father was due to join the family on a later flight. The family was planning to spend Christmas in Yonkers with relatives.
Upon Flight 826's impact with the ground, Baltz was thrown from the plane into a snow 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 Hospital, fifteen blocks from the crash site down Seventh Avenue. 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."[6]
Pictures of Baltz appeared on many front pages around the world such as the Syracuse Post-Standard 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."[7]
He died of pneumonia the next day. Hospital staff was unaware that Baltz's lungs had been seared by burning jet fuel, a life-threatening condition, which was later revealed at autopsy.
An 8-by-14 inch commemorative plaque encrusted with four ten-cent coins and five five-cent coins on the rear wall of the hospital's Phillips Chapel memorializes Baltz and all "135 Victims of The Aircraft Disaster". The coins on the plaque are those found in the boy's pocket and placed in the chapel's donation box after his death by his father, an Admiral Corporation vice president.

[invertigo]

United Airlines has it in for New York

[gregforbes]

Originally Posted by Sharon. ↗

This occured 43 years ago this very day

I'm no math major but I believe it was 53 years ago.

[William May]

When the United aircraft sliced through the TWA Constellation, one of the engines inhaled a couple of people from in the cabin, as it went through. At least it was a quick death.