Evening star., 1960-12-16
AirIiners Collide and Crash
Into New York; rs Dead
Flame
Loose inCity
TWA and UAL Planes Inbound;
Brooklyn and Stutin Island Hit

Brooklyn and StutIn Island Hit
NEW YORK, Dec. IS AP)-Two huge airlners groping
through snow-shrouded skies for landings coded and
crashed into the city today with fiery devastation At least
125 were killed.
The disaster was one Of the worst in American aviation
history.
1t unleashed flames and havoc on the ground turning
an entire block Of Brooklyn into Of terror
Residents fed apartments screaming walls caved In and
fires broke out in dozen buildings.
So far, however only one person on the ground was
known killed OF the 125 persons aboard the planes
one lived, young boy
An army of emergency workers fought through the fires
and wreckage with possibly other casualties still to be found
10 Apartments Set Fire
One plane United Airlines DC-8 let with SO aboard
struck in heavily populated Brooklyn, hurng debris like
bomb fragments and setting 10 apartment buildings
churchroncally named Pillar Of Fire-waS demolished
funeral parlor- was in flames.
1t was the first crash in this country Of pure jet
carrying passengers. 49,
The other plane, Trans World Airline Constellation
carrying a. raked the Miller Field section Of Staten
Island and to harbor water It also started
fires in the area but they were quickly controlled.
Heavy snow was falling when the crash came about
10:40 am
The disaster recalled another plane collision over the
Grand Canyon June SO 1885, when 1913 were killed It
also was between TWA and United airliners.
Todays TwA flight 226 from Dayton and Columbus,
Ohio coming in for landing at LaGuardia Field The
United ainer out Of Chicago stabbng through the
murk for 1dlewild International Airport.
Fields 10 Miles Apart
The fields about 10 miles apart on opposite shores
Of Long Island in Queens Normally planes approaching
the fields assigned to different attitudes and different
approach timing.
what Idlewild Field communications spokesman said
j Brooklyn accountant, William Noble, said he heard
roar and then "the wall came in. My wife thrown
toward me- We ran"
!,
area on Flatbush avenue setting of an inferno Every
available piece Of fire and emergency equipment was rushed
to the scene.
Street side set up and ambulances formed
i a screaming cavalcade heading to hospitals.
The lone passenger to survive was identified Stephen
5altz IL, OF Chcago's suburban Wmette He his
way to join his mother who was visiting relatives -
III Worker on Ground Killed
Killed on the ground in the flames Charles Cooper
ia sanitation department empoye who shoveng snow
RI Dense smoke and flames fingered among the buildings
: and formed black cloud above the roofs.
II heard screaming in there in the and flames"
said Nick Lges flower shop operator "1ts horrible
.lthng"
Mayor Robert Wagner issued an appeal for New Workers
ito stay away from the disaster area
Although only victim the ground had been found
early afternoon Fire Commissioner Edward Cavanaugh
said remen still had mountains of wreckage and rubbe
Ito search.
i At one point, the whole block ahame, but within
four hours massive force of remen, police emergency
crews Air and Coast squads had stemed most
.Iof the fires spread.
The FBI sent disaster squad from Washing
ton to aid in identifying victims Quesada, Federal
Aviation Agency Administrator, also few here to head
= investigation.
1--WE shocked over the tragedy" said Warren Lee
Pierson, chairman of the board of TWA.
In the midst of the Brooklyn destruction and smoke
could be the blackened metal of plane fuselage
about 80 feet hg stretching the entire width of the street.
Wreckage also scattered widely in the Staten Island
crash.
The two boroughS are separated by New York Harbor
At the Narrows in the harbor they about half
mile apart.
Watched Radar
control tower spokesman at La Guardia Field said
the TwA plane being watched radarscope it
came in when the image suddenly disappeared from view.
apparently when the planes colided and fell.
At Just what point the city they together
was not precisely determined But the stricken craft ap
pareny swerved apart pungng toward their separate
sIdooms.
u The ceiling at the time 600 feet.
The United ainer Streaked down in frightening flames
into Brooklyn. II heard sound like explosion" said
E Mrs. Agnes Macdonald "Then I smoke -.
There plane, completely wrecked In the street.
The flames intense couldn't get any closer than
Ia block"
In Washington Representative John Bell Williams DEM
OF Mississippi chairman of the House Transportation
: See CRASH, E-xe A.