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December
16, 1960
On the
morning of December 16, 1960, a TWA Lockheed Constellation
plane, model 1049A, serial number N6907C, nickname the
"Connie", and a United Airlines, a DC-8 serial
number N8013U, collided in a blinding snowstorm over New
York.
At the
time of the accident it was considered the worst aviation
disaster in the history of commercial flying. When it
was over, one hundred and twenty eight people from both
planes, plus six on the ground had lost their lives.
After the collision the Connie broke into three parts,
hurling forty-four people to their death. The plane or
what was left of it, crashed in the fields of the Miller
Army Base, in Staten Island, New York.
The other
plane, United flight 826, with eighty-four people crashed
eight miles from impact coming down on a intersection called
Seventh Avenue, and Sterling Place, a quiet community in the
Park Slope Section of Brooklyn.
The jet
obliterated everything in its path, ejecting bodies out of
the aft fuselage and onto the street and sidewalks.
The cockpit, with part of its right wing, and the attached
number three engine sliced through the Pillard of Fire
Church, demolishing it on impact.
The next
day the media came up with its own conclusion "Pilot
Error." The pilot of United 826, Captain Robert
H. Sawyer, was at blame. On May 9th 1962, the Civil
Aeronautic Board determined that the probable cause of this
accident was that United flight 826 proceeded beyond its
clearance limit and the confines of the airspace to the
flight given by Air Traffic Control, passing its holding
pattern and therefore, ramming into TWA flight 266. I
wasn't totally convinced.
In 1998, I
decided to investigate, the probable cause of the collision,
and why it happened, but most important, if it could have
been prevented. Countless hours went into the
research. Actual transcripts from the CAB were
reviewed, as well as interviews with witnesses and family
members whose loved ones perished on that cold and gray
Friday morning.
My
investigation revealed that while Captain Robert H. Sawyer
went beyond his allocated airspace, he did not stand alone
in the blame.
The
results where very disturbing, the collision could have been
prevented. there was plenty of fault to go around,
leading to a possible cover-up.
In 1999, I
decided to write my story, relating to the events that took
place on December 16th 1960. The story is entitled
"Sterling Place" The manuscript reveals who
was at fault, why there was a cover up, and by whom.
In 2001,
"Sterling Place" was copyrighted in the Library of
Congress.
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Synopsis
During
a dinner with friends in Connecticut the topic of John
Kennedy Jr's death came up. News of his death in a
plane crash had stunned the world, and since I had pilot
training I was immediately asked many questions. One
particularly interesting one was Why do planes collide when
there is so much air space?
As
I tried to answer the question, I couldn't help but think of
that horrifying December day when two planes did just that.
It was the holiday season, one of the busiest times for
commercial flying. With just nine days left before
Christmas, Americans were taking to the skies to be with
their loved ones. I always believed Christmas was a
holy occasion. It's a time of giving, a time to thank
the Lord, and a time to love one another. Nothing
should go wrong, but it did.
On
Friday, December 16, 1960, a Trans-World Airline plane, the
Lockheed Constellation, and a United DC-8 jetliner collided
in a blinding snowfall over Staten Island, New York, killing
all 128 occupants aboard both planes was well as six on the
ground, making this the worst air disaster in aviation
history. TWA Flight 266 had departed Columbus Airport
with a crew of five and thirty-nine passengers, including
two infants.
Their
destination was LaGuardia Airport in New York. United
Flight 826 had originated as Flight 856 in Los Angeles, with
a crew of three: Captain Robert H. Sawyer, First Officer
Robert W. Fiebing, and Second Officer Richard E. Prewitt.
They departed Los Angeles at approximately 3:20 A.M. inbound
for Chicago, where they would pick up the rest of the crew
and passengers for their final destination, Idlewild
International Airport, New York.
When
the planes were fifteen minutes from their destinations,
both were ordered by air traffic controllers to hold their
positions over New Jersey. TWA 266 held a pattern of
5,000 feet over Linden, and United 826 held position 6,000
feet over the Preston. Officials later stated that the
TWA plane had been cleared to leave its holding pattern and
make its landing approach when its last message was heard.
Its flight path called for it to go across New Jersey, pass
a checkpoint off Coney Island and then fly over the Prospect
Park section of Brooklyn toward LaGuardia. When United
DC-8 got permission to make its landing approach, it was to
pass a checkpoint off the Rockaways and fly over Rockaway
Beach and Jamaica Bay to Idlewild.
The
ceiling for that day was six hundred feet, visibility was a
mile. Visibility beyond that was minimal.
According to reports issued by the Federal Aviation
Administration and the Civil Aeronautic Board, both planes
were under instrument flight rules, yet something went
terribly wrong. With Captain Robert H. Sawyer at the
controls, the DC-8 passed its assigned vector; perhaps he
was disoriented, as he was flying with only one VOR (a very
high frequency omni-directional range). The instrument
flight data recorder indicated that the crew had changed
airspeed seven times within minutes and that the plane
reached speeds of over four hundred miles per hour and was
eleven miles off course. LaGuardia radar indicated
that the two planes made contact at approximately 10:33 A.M.
over Miller Army Airfield in Staten Island, New York.
After the collision, one plane continued northeast for a
distance of eight or ten miles.
The
other appeared to be nearly stationary for a moment, then
commenced a slow right turn to a southwesterly heading and
disappeared from radar. The Constellation fell in
three parts over Staten Island, bodies spewing from its
fuselage as it tumbled toward the ground, indicating that
the propeller-driven plane had been rammed broadside.
The crew of the DC-8 fought to land the crippled jet at
Prospect Park, but the badly damaged plane fell onto a
populated area of Brooklyn, disintegrating on impact and
obliterating everything in its path.
It
was a very cold morning, and there was a gusting wind,
making it difficult to see. Snowbanks from the
previous day lined the streets. My parents didn't know
I was on my way to Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to look at
some bikes. I was only fifteen and not allowed to
travel in the trains by myself, so this would be a new
experience. I was window shopping when a thunderous
explosion shook the ground. There was a moment of
silence that seemed to last and eternity. Suddenly
people were running toward Seventh Avenue. Someone
yelled that a building had collapsed. I ran with them
to see. When I reached Seventh Avenue I stopped and
stared, too young to understand the magnitude of what
surrounded me. A chilling sensation gripped my entire
body, for this wasn't just a building that came down.
This was worse, much worse. This is my story...
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