Bradley International Airport – June 4, 1984

Bradley International Airport – June 4, 1984

Windsor Locks, Connecticut

     On June 4, 1984, a Learjet 23, (N101PP) left Lorain County Airport in Ohio with scheduled stops at Cleveland, Syracuse, N.Y., Bradley International Airport, and then on to Philadelphia.  At 11:40 p.m., as the plane was making its final approach to Bradley, it veered to the right and crashed in a massive fireball to the right of Runway 33, about 1,000 feet from the airport fire department.  All three people aboard were killed. 

     The dead were identified as:

    (Pilot) Charles Huffman, 32, of North Canton, Ohio.

    (Co-pilot) Ronald Dulay, 26, of Lakewood, Ohio.

    (Passenger) Eldridge Sheetz, 71, of Warsaw, Indiana.

    The cause was blamed on a malfunction of the wing spoiler system which led to a loss of control.    

Sources:

The Bulletin, UPI article, “Crash of Learjet Takes Three Lives”, June 6, 1984 (Bend and Duthces Co. Oregon)

Aviation Safety Network – Flight Safety Foundation, NTSB

The Sun, (Westerly, R.I.), “Three Killed In Bradley Airport Airplane Crash”, June 5, 1984, page 7

Norwich Bulletin, “Jet Crash At Bradley Claims 3 Lives”, June 5, 1984, page 5.

The Sun, (Westerly, R.I.), “Investigators Puzzled By Crash”, June 6, 1984, page 8, with photo.   

Norwich Bulletin, “Investigation Begins Into Fatal Jet Crash”, June 6, 1984, page 5     

Norwich Bulletin, “Witnesses Describe Learjet Crash”, June 7, 1984, page 8.  

 

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