Northampton, Mass. C-54 Crash Memorial
Located at Florence Road and Old Wilson Road, Northampton, Mass.
To learn more about this accident, click here: Northampton, MA. – 1948
Photos taken May 3, 2018.
Click on images to enlarge.
from author and historian Jim Ignasher
Northampton, Mass. C-54 Crash Memorial
Located at Florence Road and Old Wilson Road, Northampton, Mass.
To learn more about this accident, click here: Northampton, MA. – 1948
Photos taken May 3, 2018.
Click on images to enlarge.
Groton, Connecticut – October 19, 1944
Updated January 13, 2019
On October 19, 1944, a navy Hellcat fighter plane crashed into the roof of a home belonging to Fillibert L. Bergeron, causing substantial damage to the structure. (The exact address was not stated in the press.) As the plane tore through the house, it snagged the blanket off a sleeping 2-year-old girl. After striking the home, the aircraft continued onward and came down in the nearby school yard of the Colonel Ledyard School on Chicago Avenue. State troopers found the blanket amidst the aircraft wreckage.
The pilot was identified as navy Lieutenant W. J. McCartney, of Toledo, Ohio, who survived the ordeal with non-life threatening injuries.
The sleeping girl was unharmed.
Update: Lieutenant McCartney later married a woman who lived in the home his aircraft crashed into. The story of their romance was published in a book titled “New London Goes To War” (c. 2011), written by Connecticut author Clark van der Lyke, who in 1944 was a child attending the school where Lieutenant McCartney’s Hellcat came to rest. Mr. van der Lyke has also published the story in Kindle format under the title “Cupid Was His Co-pilot”.
Source:
New York Times, “Plane Wrecks Room; Sleeping Baby Saved”, October 20, 1944. (Two photos with article.)
Seekonk, Massachusetts – November 25, 1928
Shortly after 1 p.m. on November 25, 1928, a private plane carrying three young men took off from What Cheer Airport in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, for a sight-seeing flight. Less than fifteen minutes later the plane crashed on Cole’s Farm in Seekonk.
The lone witness to the crash, Edward L. Cole, 17, stated the plane was passing over at an altitude of about 800 feet when the motor suddenly stopped, and the aircraft went into a spin and crashed.
The pilot, William Lang, 23, and a passenger, Stanislaus D’Ambra, 20, both of Providence, were killed instantly. A second passenger, Francis Clancy 18, was still alive but gravely injured. He died while en-route to Pawtucket Memorial Hospital.
Roland Coutu of Providence was supposed to go on the flight, but gave up his place to D’Ambra.
As often happened in such accidents, word of the crash spread quickly and thousands of curious onlookers descended on the scene.
Source: Woonsocket Call,”3 Providence Men Killed In Seekonk Plane crash”, November 26, 1928, Pg. 1
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