Cheshire, Massachusetts – September 17, 1988

Mt. Graylock

     On the evening of September 17, 1988, a single-engine Cessna 172, (Reg. no. N6586J), containing a pilot and two passengers, took off from Westerly, Rhode Island, bound for Bennington, Vermont.   As the aircraft was passing over western Massachusetts it encountered heavy fog and clouds and the pilot became disoriented. 

     At 6:30 p.m. the pilot radioed radar controllers that he was lost.  The controllers, seeing the aircraft blip on their screens, attempted to guide the pilot through the cloud cover to the nearest airport before the blip abruptly disappeared and all radio contact was lost.  A search was instituted shortly afterwards. 

     The wreckage of the plane was spotted by a helicopter crew the following afternoon on the east side of Mount Greylock in the town of Cheshire. When rescuers reached the scene, they found the two passengers deceased inside the aircraft.  The pilot was found one-tenth of a mile from the wreck, injured, but alive.  He had tried to make his way down the mountain to get help.

     The two passengers were from Vermont, and had gone to Rhode Island for a fishing trip.    

    At least two other plane crashes have occurred on Mt. Greylock; one on August 12, 1948, and another on April 2, 1958.     

     Sources:   

     The Providence Journal, “Bodies To Be Pulled From Plane That Crashed on Mt. Greylock”, September 19, 1988, pg. A-2. 

    The Providence Journal, “2 Bodies Recovered From Mount Greylock Plane”, September 20, 1988, pg. A-16