Connecticut Military Aircraft Accident | New England Aviation History

Rentschler Airport, CT. – April 16, 1976

September 12, 2018

Rentschler Airport, East Hartford, Connecticut – April 16, 1976

On April 16, 1976, a Connecticut Army National Guard Huey helicopter left Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks bound for Groton. The crew consisted of the pilot, Major John M. Sivilla, and Chief Warrant Officer Gary Reviczky.

While over a residential section of East Hartford, sections of the tail rotor suddenly broke loose for no apparent reason. Major Sivilla was able to maintain control and head towards Rentschler Airport about a quarter-mile away. As he reached the airport and was in the process of landing, the helicopter bounced off the ground and spun around before crashing. One of the rotor blades tore into the cockpit barely missing Sivilla and Reviczky. There was no fire after the crash and both men escaped without injury.

One six foot long piece of the tail rotor imbedded in the roof of a private home on Margery Drive. No occupants of the home were injured. Another piece came down in the parking lot of the Edward B. Stevens School on Butternut Drive, and another section fell in a wooded area. There were no injuries on the ground.

Source:

Hartford Courant, “Guard Helicopter Crashes In E. Hartford; Pair Unhurt”. April 17, 1976, page 6. (With photo of crash)

Farmington, CT – April 11, 1945

September 28, 2015

Farmington, Connecticut – April 11, 1945

P-47D Thunderbolt – U.S. Air Force Photo

On April 11, 1945, two P-47 fighter aircraft took off from Bradley Field in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, for an instrument training flight. One of the aircraft, a P-47D, (Ser. No. 42-22360), was piloted by 2nd Lt. Vincent Hugh Core, 20, of Brooklyn, New York. While passing over the town of Framington, Lt. Core’s aircraft was observed to plunge straight down into a wooded swampy area and explode leaving a crater reported to be 12 to 15 feet deep, and 30 feet wide. One source identifies the location as being on a farm belonging to John Lipski, and another as belonging to Leo Grouten.

In 1987, 41 years after the crash, David Tabol, a Farmington Boy Scout, erected a granite monument near the crash site as a memorial to Lt. Core. (The site is now part of the Unionville State Forrest.) Further back in the woods is a crude piles of rocks, which some believe was left by the military clean-up crew to serve as a marker for the site.

Sources:

The Bristol Press, “Pilot Killed, Plane Blown To Pieces In Crash In Farmington”, April 11, 1945, pg. 1

The Bristol Press, ” Army Investigating Crash Of Plane In Farmington; Brooklyn Flier Is Killed”, April 12, 1945

The Bristol Press,”WWII Tragedy, Air Force Pilot Crashes, Dies In Unionville Forest In 1945″, by Ken Lipshez, October, 1995.

Connecticut Department Of Health Death Certificate