Attleboro, Massachusetts – September 22, 1948
On September 22, 1948, a 28-year-old pilot rented a small airplane at Wilkins Airport in North Attleboro and flew southward over the Attleboro area. The pilot was a WWII army veteran who’d learned to fly under the GI Bill and was in the process of obtaining his commercial pilot’s license.
The pilot lived on Prairie Avenue in Attleboro where his father owned a small farm. He’d told his father that he’d be flying over their house at 3:00 p.m. so his father stood waiting outside. At the appointed time, the pilot flew low and “buzzed” the farm, and as he did so lost control and crashed into a wooded area on South Main Street and was killed.
The pilot’s younger brother was also a pilot. A few minutes after the crash, the brother happened to fly over the property in a separate airplane and saw the wreckage from above. He recognized the plane as being one owned by Wilkins Airport and flew to the airport to find out who’d rented it. Upon learning it was his brother he went to the scene.
Source:
Providence Journal, “Attleboro Flier Dies In Accident”, September 23, 1948, pg. 1.
