Edgartown Plane Crash | New England Aviation History

Martha’s Vineyard – September 18, 1992

May 14, 2019

Martha’s Vineyard – September 18, 1992

On the evening of September 18, 1992, a single-engine Cessna 182 with a male pilot and two female passengers aboard left New Haven, Connecticut, bound for Martha’s Vineyard Airport in Edgartown. When the flight arrived at Martha’s Vineyard it encountered poor weather and low visibility conditions and a 100 foot cloud ceiling. At 8:17 p.m., as the aircraft was making its landing approach to Runway 24, it clipped some tree tops and then crashed and exploded in a wooded area about a half-mile from the airport. All aboard perished.

Sources:

Vineyard Gazette, “Plane Crash Kills Three In Airport Woods; FAA Investigates Cause Of Fiery Accident”, September 22, 1992, page 1.

Martha’s Vineyard Times, “Plane Crashes, Burns; 3 Die In State Forest”, September 24, 1992, page 1.

Cape Cod Times, “Plane Crash Kills Three On Vineyard”, September 19, 1992, page A2

Cape Cod Times, “Investigators Seek Cause Of Accident”, September 20, 1992, (with photo of crash site.)

Edgartown, MA. – June 8, 1975

July 25, 2018

Edgartown, Massachusetts – June 8, 1975

P-51 Mustang – U.S. Air Force Photo

On June 8, 1975, ten members of the North American Flyers club arrived at Katama Airport in Edgartown, on Martha’s Vineyard, to practice stunt flying. There were five aircraft among the group, all former military fighter planes converted for civilian use.

Shortly before 1:00 p.m., a 43-year-old pilot from Southbury, Connecticut, was making some low altitude aerobatic maneuvers over the airfield in a P-51D Mustang, (Military Serial #44-74008), (Civilian registration #N76AF). While the plane was at an altitude of about 1,000 feet it suddenly went into a spin and dove into the ground about twenty feet from the airport’s main administration building. There was no fire or explosion, but the pilot was killed instantly.

One witness to the accident was Edgartown’s chief of police who was standing near the adminsitration building at the time. He later told reporters that he began to run when he saw the plane falling, and that the impact occurred about thirty feet away from where he’d been standing.

Source:

Providence Journal, “Two Pilots Killed In Crashes”, June 9, 1975. (The other accident referred to in the article occurred in Coventry, Rhode Island.)

Hartford Courant, “Southbury Pilot Dies IN Aerial Acrobatics Act”, June 9, 1975

Unknown Newspaper, “Stunt Pilot Killed On Vineyard”, June 9, 1975.

Evening Bulletin, “Two Pilots Are Killed- One In R.I., 2nd In Mass.”, June 9, 1975

Aviation Safety Network, Wikibase #10557