Weymouth, MA – September 9, 1951

Weymouth, Massachusetts – September 9, 1951 

 

DC-3 Airliner

     On September 9, 1951, a Northeast Airlines DC-3 was in-route from Boston to New York when one of the engines caught fire. 

     The plane left Boston at 12:07 p.m., and the pilot, Wallace Robbins, declared an emergency fifteen minutes later.  He was directed to land at the South Weymouth Naval Air Station, and began making his approach.  Unfortunately the field was primarily used for navy blimps, and didn’t have a runway long enough to accommodate a DC-3.  Therefore, Robbins knew he would have to make a wheels-up belly-landing.

     As the engine blazed away, the pilots put the plane into a side-slip so the smoke would blow away from the passenger cabin.  The  flight attendant Ruth Jenkins made sure that all sixteen passengers had their seatbelts fastened. 

     Robbins brought the plane down as slowly as possible, easing it onto the field and allowing it to skid to a stop. The ship came to rest just before a peat bog, and all passengers and crew evacuated safely without injury.   The crew was praised for keeping everyone calm and evacuating the plane in an orderly fashion as base fire crews extinguished the flames.      

Sources:

     New York Times, “19 Saved In Crash Landing”, September 10, 1951  

     The Nashua Telegraph, “19 Escape As Airliner Makes Crash Landing”, September 10, 1951, page 14. 

 

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