Cranston, Rhode Island – July 28, 1938
On the evening of July 28, 1938, a naval aviator home on leave from Pearl Harbor rented a small plane at Hillsgrove Airport in Warwick, R. I., and took his brother and sister for a sightseeing flight. They flew west and circled the Town of Scituate before heading back towards the airport. As they were passing over Cranston, the engine suddenly stopped, forcing the pilot to look for a place to make an emergency landing. He aimed for a golf course on Phenix Avenue, and as he came down the aircraft clipped a small birch tree, rebounded into the road, and skidded until colliding with a stone wall at the edge of the golf course. The aircraft was wrecked by the occupants were not injured.
The golf course was named in the newspaper as the “Arrow Country Club”, which no longer exists.
The naval aviator’s name was Wallace D. Eddy, of Providence, R. I. An Internet search indicates he became a highly decorated officer during World War II. https://soledadmemorial.org/plaques/lieutenant-wallace-d-eddy/
Source: Providence Journal, “3 Escape Injury In Plane Crash”, July 29, 1938, pg. 7.
