Coventry, CT. – May 30, 1943

Coventry, Connecticut – May 30, 1943

 

P-47B Thunderbolt
U.S. Air Force Photo

     Shortly after 10:00 a.m. on the morning of May 30, 1943, an army pilot from Westover Field in Chicopee, Massachusetts, was on a training flight over central Connecticut in a P-47B aircraft when a fire developed in the engine.  The pilot, who was not identified in the newspaper, managed to bail out of the burning aircraft, but when he did so was struck by the rear stabilizer, and suffered a severe injury to his thigh.  The aircraft crashed on the eastern side of Grant Hill Road in the northern portion of the town of Coventry, Connecticut.  The pilot landed safely in the area of Coventry’s Creaser Park, near Case and South River Roads.  He was attended to by a passing motorist before being transported to Manchester Memorial Hospital.   

     Source:

     The Hartford Courant, “Two Army Planes Crash, One Killed, Another Hurt,”  May 31, 1943, page 1.   (The article refers to two separate plane crashes.)

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