Montague, MA. – August 4, 1968

July 11, 2018

Montague, Massachusetts – August 4, 1968

     On August 4, 1968, a 17-year-old youth from Greenfield, Massachusetts, was at Turner’s Falls Airport to test his gyrocopter which he’d built himself from a manufactured kit.  (Turner’s Falls is an unincorporated village within the town of Montague.)    

     According to witnesses, the gyrocopter rose to a height of 300 feet before it went out of control and crashed.  The youth was transported to Farren Memorial Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

     Source:

     Boston Globe, “Turner Falls Man Dies In Own Plane”, August 5, 1968 

Filed Under: Massachusetts - Civil Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Turners Falls, MA – September 20, 1943

April 19, 2015

Turners Falls, Massachusetts – September 20, 1943

     At about 3:00 p.m., on September 20, 1943, a Pitcairn PCA-3 Autogyro, NC11612 took off from Turners Falls Airport in Montague, Massachusetts, and crashed about a half hour afterwards about one mile west-northwest of the airport.  The pilot, Donald Whitman was seriously injured.

     Whitman was test flying the aircraft for the Department of Agriculture, flying low at tree-top level to simulate aerial spraying which was what the autogyro was to be used for.  At one point the landing gear snagged some electrical wires which caused the accident.    The wires were stretched between poles which were partially hidden by dense foliage. 

     Source: Civil Aeronautics Investigation Report 4066-43, May 19, 1944.

      

 

Filed Under: Massachusetts - Civil Tagged With: , , , , , ,
Return to Top ▲Return to Top ▲