Flashback: Park Slope Plane Crash

On this day 49 years ago, two planes collided in midair above Staten Island — causing the United Airlines flight to crash into a Park Slope intersection (7th Avenue and Sterling Street) and a TWA aircraft's wreckage to land in Miller Field on Staten Island. The crash killed 134 passengers as well as 6 people on the ground — one young boy survived the crash, but died at the NY Methodist hospital the next day. The Bowery Boys note there are still scars to be seen on Sterling Place, and more images of the aftermath can be seen at the Brooklyn Public LIbrary.

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on December 16, 2009 5:25 PM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

Neighborhood cookouts were so much better back then...

Mordicai

When I first moved to Park Slope one of the first things I did was head to 7th & Sterling & try to imagine this. Crazy.

sdk

South Brooklyn's very own OVERFLOW Magazine covered this same story, and in greater in depth, in it's Spring 2009 issue. Here's the link to the issue below. Check it out!

http://www.overflowmagazine.com/spring09.htm

JudyB12

I was there.

I walked through the wreckage handing out hot chocolate to the firemen, police, workers.

I was there at night. As I remember it was two maybe three nights.

Was it the engine or the tail of the plane...

It was so big..

As I remember a local garage as used as a morgue..

Raking through the debris someone found a ring. It was still on the owners finger..

JudyB12

As horrible as it was.. It missed by a few blocks,

Methodist Hospital, Manual Training High School and a grade school. I think only one person died on the ground.

He? was in a building.

thefacts

I heard the explosion. It was at 3:10 pm. We had just come home from school. The crash rumbled through the streets of Brooklyn, miles away, at 30 dB, and we thought some boiler exploded. No one whined. No one complained. It was the real Brooklyn. Shortly thereafter, Brooklyn died.

Only The Dead Know Brooklyn.

HOTCUP

did the plane kill it?

catwrangler

dodger fan, by any chance?

justthinkin

Or plane engines in the middle of your street. Probably got ticketed for an alternate side of the street violation.

PTG in nyc

There's something you don't see anymore...SNOW!!

justthinkin

I was only 4 when this happened, but I still remember how frantic my mother was when she heard a plane crashed into the Slope, since my grandfather and great aunt lived on 4th Street between 7th and 8th. In an ironic twist, one of the buildings destroyed by this crash was a church called The Pillar of Fire.

jt10000

I grew up very close to that spot (but was born after the crash) -- it was clear that something had happened there due to the very different buildings.

sowhtifithppnsitwll

I lived on 6th ave and 13 street 53 years ago, moved when I was 8.

I remember how my brother who is in his 60's went on his bike.

He came back so upset and sick. He didn't have permission to go, just went and was ill for days after that.

Not expecting the sight he saw will probably be with him till he dies.