UPDATED 6/29/2023: I grew up about a mile and a half from Mitchel Air Force Base on Long Island NY, almost directly under the main approach to Runway 30. As such, I grew up seeing all kinds of aircraft in the pattern and at an very early age I could identify everything in the Air Force inventory by sight OR by sound.
That included many Navy aircraft operating out of nearby Floyd Bennett Field on the south shore near “Idelwild” (now JFK) airport.
They flew over our house low enough (approximately 400 feet on the 3 degree runway glide slope) that we could routinely see faces in the cockpits. Sometimes we would even get a “wave” from the crew as we played in the street – and then run into the house to excitedly report this to my parents. I made plastic models of most of these familiar planes. (and a lot of others*)
I was in the first grade on November 2, 1955 at Meadow Lawn School in East Meadow (now McVey Elementary). We were working on an art project – making a weather vane from a wooden thread spool, a straight pin, a soda straw and some construction paper “feathers”. I heard an aircraft nearby and understood that it sounded very unusual.
Looking out the window towards the north, across the play field I saw a B-26 Invader in a flat spin, wings level, headed downward. I also recall thinking that I had seen 2-3 parachutes as it disappeared behind some houses, less than a half mile away. (Apparently there were no parachutes.) I yelled to the teacher (Miss O’Kane) that I just saw a plane crash.
Sure Timmy….
Then we saw the huge black ball of smoke boiling upwards. We all lined up at the windows and the teacher led us in an impromptu prayer. Not sure which of many variants the crashed plane was. A primary reference (Douglas Aircraft) stated the aircraft that crashed was delivered as an A-26C-45-DT model, tail number 44-35737. Representative A-26 Photo.
Note that despite nomenclature confusion, the Douglas B-26 Invader that crashed is a different, although roughly similar aircraft to the Martin B-26 Marauder. In 1948 the new USAF renamed the WWII Army Air Force A-26 Invader as the B-26. In 1965 they were renamed back as the A-26 for political reasons. Confused yet?
Representative B-26 Official USAF Photo
The plane was probably out of Mitchel AFB but crashed in a housing development in East Meadow, on Barbara Drive, off Hempstead Turnpike near the base. It was a big deal at the time, one of several crashes in the area that eventually led to the closure of Mitchel in 1961. The pilot and a crewman were killed.
I understand that loosing one engine in a twin is not extremely serious but accidentally “turning into” a dead engine in a tight turn – with low airspeed, can make that wing stall. (eg: If the right engine quits, DON’T make a hard right turn.) That can cause a flat spin, unrecoverable when at low altitudes. Obviously I don’t know what happened here.
I was able to visit my hometown in November 2013 and took the below photo from outside the classroom window at the school from where I witnessed the crash.
B-26 Flat Spin View
Above: The scene from outside the same classroom window at Meadowlawn School (now McVey Elementary) looking across the playing fields in East Meadow. That’s Meadowbrook Hospital on the right edge (now called Nassau University Medical Center). The two trees in the foreground did not exist in 1955, nor did the basketball court or the more distant trees seen here on the left.
The 61 Barbara Drive crash site is in the direction between the two basketball hoop backboards. I got a pretty unobstructed view of the aircraft going down, less than a half-mile from here. A sight that 6 year old kid has not forgotten.
B-26 Crash George Mattson: NY daily News
This photo photo was taken by George Mattson of the New York Daily News as he was flying in the area at the time and happened upon the crash site. This photo won him a Pulitzer Prize. The crew wasn’t so lucky.
Fortunately no one on the ground was injured as the aircraft just missed the house but the resulting fire did set fire to the house and nearby car. The East Meadow Fire Department is responding, just pulling out some hose from the truck. The car probably caught fire from flaming AV Gas running down the rain gutter.
A close examination of the photo shows that the aircraft landed flat on its belly, however the right hand propeller blades are missing – the hub seems to be there. Possibly the cause of the spin/crash? The nose, cockpit, both engine nacelles and the wings are still essentially intact, parts of the left prop are visible..The left wing appears to have separated.
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Additional Musings:
During these years I saw thousands of aircraft including the C-47, C-119, C-46, C-54, F-86, T-33, F-94, B-25, B-26, C-124, F-84, F-100 among others. I even saw a MIG-15 in USAF markings once and even a 5-engined B-17. What?
Yup, I heard and then saw a B-17 with a nose-mounted engine and later assumed I had an overly active imagination as I recalled the scene. Until I learned that the USAF DID fly such an aircraft as a flying engine test-bed. I saw it. This same aircraft also flew at times with a large radial in the nose.
- B-17 with FIVE engines; four of them shut down and props feathered. The nose is painted with “Wright Typhoon”. That was a developmental engine that was more powerful than the B-17’s four 4 Pratt and Whitney 1200 HP radials combined, but ultimately that turboprop was unsuccessful. (Official USAF Photograph)
As a result of all this activity, to this day, any time I hear an aircraft I will instinctively look up to identify it. Along with watching “Steve Canyon“, “Sky King“, “Navy Log“, “Air Power“, “Twelve O’Clock High“, “The Big Picture” and the other great 1950’s-60’s TV programs, I became very interested in aviation and the military in general.
(Incidentally, this B-17 engine test-bed aircraft, tail number (4)485813, was later declared excess and sold. I understand that its aft section was used to rebuild another B-17 (4485734), ultimately being rebuilt back to its wartime configuration as the “Liberty Belle”. Unfortunately the modern “Liberty Belle” was destroyed in a post emergency-landing fire in Illinois in 2011. My buddy had previously gotten a ride in her sometime before the crash.)
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Mitchel Field recollections: Speaking of Mitchel Field (AKA Mitchel Air Force Base), some photo’s of the open house they held on Armed Forces Day, 1957. My Dad took me there for a visit – you could actually TOUCH the planes we saw flying overhead every day! Wow! That’s me, age 8.
Mitchel Field Armed Forces Day 1957
Upper left – The C-124 Globemaster II, the largest cargo plane of the time. Two deck levels inside. Nicknamed “Old Shakey” it was a real monster. It used the same huge R-4360 radial engines as the B-36, the Spruce Goose and many others. I remember climbing around on the red nylon web cargo nets rigged inside. Dozens of C-119 Flying Boxcar cargo planes lined up in the distant background (also powered by the R-4360’s).
I also saw an unmistakeable “beavertail” C-119J Flying Boxcar variant flying over our house on its way to Mitchel. That was a modified C-119 with the clamshell doors on the aft fuselage that opened up and down versus the “left and right” configuration of the standard plane.
This design allowed their opening while in flight. That beavertail aircraft was designed to catch re-entering Corona satellites as they parachuted down from space carrying photo’s of Soviet military facilities. The plane would deploy grappling hooks of some kind, snag the parachute and then reel it the catch through the large rear opening. Cool.
Upper right: Doing my best Dr. Strangelovian imitation of Slim Pickens. I just KNEW those fuel tanks were BOMBS! Pay no attention to the duct tape on the fuselage (blow-in door) of this F-84F Thunderstreak from the New Jersey Air Guard. A sleek looking early jet built by Republic, maybe 20 miles from here.
Lower Left: The Cessna 310 built for the military as the L-27A or later on, the U-3A. Unofficially known in the USAF as the “Blue Canoe”. Still a sleek looking aircraft. Remember the “Songbird” of Sky King TV fame? Same basic aircraft. But the real gem here is the twin rudders of the P-61 Black Widow just barely visible behind the U-3A tail. Wish we had gotten a photo of THAT one!
Lower Right: Peering into the cabin air conditioner air intake on an early C-130 Hercules. Thirty five years later I was riding in the back of one of these, flying from Mombassa Kenya to Mogadishu Somalia (while sitting on my flak jacket). Still a great aircraft!
Here’s a shot from the 1959 Armed Forces Day event: The one and only Sikorsky S-60 ever built.
Sikorsky S-60 at Mitchel Field
This large, piston engined helo was the only prototype ever built but it was found to be underpowered as it was being evaluated by the Navy. The design eventually evolved into the turbine powered CH-54 “Tarhe” and the civil S-64 “Skycrane” heavy lift helo’s.
This S-60 helo crashed in 1961, the surviving parts were stored and then further damaged by a tornado but is being considered for some kind of restoration – a rare (and unlucky) bird indeed. A Mitchel Field exclusive.
Here’s some real Mitchel Field Trivia. In the photo above, see those poles above and beyond the hangars behind the Helo? They have 2 horizontal cross-arms each. Those were lights for the the AFB baseball field. When Mitchel closed, those lights were donated to St. Raphael’s church in East Meadow and then installed surrounding the ball field behind the church school next to the “sand pit”.
Those fields kept a lot of us off the streets playing baseball and football in those days. I believe at the time that St Raphael’s had the only lighted ball field on Long Island except for Shea Stadium. I had a summer job at the field as a groundskeeper – one of my duties was to turn on those lights for night games.
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* Speaking of Model airplanes – anyone else build these two?
Aurora Models – Source unknown
I built them both. The “Zero” was my first model attempt, probably had lots of glue all over it! I suspect these two succumbed to flight testing off our roof, or possibly a Vikings funeral via a fire cracker while in a steep dive or twirled around on the end of a string….
AR
Saw it too, Tim!
My family lived in the Fairview development of Westbury near Salisbury golf course. We were under the takeoff/landing path of that runway; like you, my childhood was continually punctuated by the roar of distant (and not so distant) radial engines and the flash of duralumin overhead.
Ditto the models, although it may have been the glue that I was enjoying most.
On the day of that crash, I was engaged in a heated argument with a neighborhood friend when I was distracted by the astonishing sight of a B-26 Marauder in, as you noted, a flat spin. I watched in disbelief as it disappeared below the horizon, to be followed by a plume of black smoke. I ran and told my mother, who promptly went across the street and roused our neighbor, a free-lance news photographer, and drove him to the site with his camera. As I recall, the next day’s New York Times featured a front-page picture of the accident scene with the broken-off empennage of the bomber dominating the location (not sure it was his work, however).
I’ve never forgotten that day, and have dreamt of that fatal moment repeatedly and wondered what the crew must have felt as it went down. What a way to die.
We had several school field trips to Mitchel; I particularly recall clambering over a C-119 Flying Boxcar, my personal favorite. Cheers.
Hi Rob – Thanks for the note! That is a lingering memory from my childhood although the peripheral details are now otherwise fuzzy.. (I was 6 years old at the time). Parachutes or not? Apparently not from the news accounts that were recorded. I distinctly remember NOT looking outside for a seemingly long time after I heard the unusual A/C sound while I was working on my art project. But then did look out to see their last few seconds of the flat spin. So now, if I hear an unusual A/C sound, I look for it immediately; now a lifelong habit.
Just yesterday two USMC Osprey V-22’s flew directly over my house and you could hear them coming for a LONG time in advance. They were in the “helo” mode, moving slowly….All the neighbors came outside too. A couple of weeks ago another unusual sound in the area – then an RAF Tornado flew down the valley at about 3000 feet. Cool….(I’m East of Oakland CA)
Yes, living near Mitchel Field was an experience in itself. I remember the open house events and we got to climb around inside C-119’s, C-47’s, huge C-124’s etc. I have a few pix to scan of those visits; I’ll post them.
From Westbury, you were near the approach to runway 23 which also ran over Hofstra College towards the southwest – scene of a rally bad P-47 crash earlier.
I think one of the B-26 crash site photo’s won a Pulitzer Prize at the time – maybe your neighbor.
Thanks for visiting the website and for your note!
Tim
I remember that day, my next door neighbor with a reputation of chasing ambulances was a lawyer. He always loaded up the kids when something like this happened and took us all to the accident and I don’t really know what he did. I do remember a crash, where the plane with a couple of engines on the wings and the tail and one or two wings sticking out of the house. They were there all night fighting the fire and I have to say it was the most dramatic scene I had seen my whole life, all of 13 when it happened I think. Still remember it to this day. It is like a picture in a slide program that has a few images and that’s about it. I asked a lot of questions, but nobody knew anything, until the next day when the news came out. It was crazy, and I too wondered what it was like for the crew, going down like that. I guess that’s the way we thought back then in the 50’s. Post WWII kids of depression children who had seen it all and suffered through more than I care to imagine. Mitchell Field. I even forgot the name when I was trying to explain for my wife the accident as I saw it back then. I’m in the Philippines now. Ciao and enjoy your aircraft hobbies.
Hi Rich – Thanks for the note. Yes, an unforgettable event to those who witnessed it; and you were right there. There were several other crashes during the time Mitchel was operating and several are described in detail on various other websites – but not this crash. Just a mention of it here and there. A NY daily News photographer took some photos of the crash from the air and these won a Pulitzer Prize, otherwise little mention of it anywhere. One is posted here.
Ciao & thanks for visiting my site….
Tim
That was my Dad who took the picture!
Wow! Timing is everything…but it’s still a sad scene.
Thanks for your note Alicia !
Tim
Hi Tim.. .great to visit the planes on opening day. . .reminds me of being in my scout troop in huntington in 69 we had a kid in the troop named kelly and his dad was at grumman building the lunar Module. . .and we were invited to visit and actually walk inside one being built. . .radios weren’t installed in it yet! Dennis n1imw
Hi Dennis – yep, Long Island was an interesting place to grow up. Lots of aircraft flying around, lots of big companies making them and all the support work going on. Many of my classmates had parents working at Grumman, Fairchild, Republic, Sperry etc. I was at Farmingdale in the late 1960’s while they were building the Lunar Lander – but I never got a tour ;o(
A different place back then!
Tim
Hi Tim, Thank you for posting this “Mitchel Field memory.” Although I didn’t witness this crash I was aware of it. I have been fascinated with Mitchel AFB memorabilia and history practically all of my life. I grew up in Levittown during the “golden age” of the 1950s and early 60s. My father was an Air Force reservist with the 514th Troop Carrier Group stationed at Mitchel, first assigned to C-46s and later to C-119’s. My dad’s influence is the primary reason for my lifelong love of aviation and model building and collecting.
Your formative years sound so similar to mine. I watched Sky King, Steve Canyon, and The Whirlybirds. My family knew people who worked at Grumman in Bethpage and Republic in Farmingdale. I built Aurora models manufactured in West Hempstead and a few Renwal kits too. I went to airshows at Mitchel and was awestruck by the C-124, Grumman SA-16 Albatross, and so many other aircraft of the day. I heard the drone of R4360s overhead daily and it was music to my ears. One distinct, but somewhat hazy memory I have, is seeing a Convair B-36 strategic bomber sitting on the ramp dwarfing everything around it. This would have to have been around 1954-55. I was only four at the time but I remember seeing that unforgettable sight.
As you know, there were several other crashes and runway overshoots leading to the closing of the base. And, do you remember the notorious fuel starved C-123 inbound for Mitchel that crashed on the Southern State Parkway in 1958?
When the base closed in the Spring of 1961, many from the 514th transferred to McGuire AFB in NJ. Others, including my dad, transferred to Steward AFB (Now Stewart Airport) in Newburgh, NY.
I live in San Diego now, but will always have a special place in my heart for Mitchel Field, Levittown, and all of Long Island. A close friend of mine, who grew up in Rockville Centre, and now lives in Los Angeles, always refers to Mitchel as “that hallowed ground.”
Tim, if you have any other photos of Mitchel airshows, or anything else Mitchel related that you can scan and post, I would be most grateful. Thank you in advance and thank you for this posting.
Glenn
Hi Glen! Thanks for visiting my blog…..It’s been a fun project and Mitchel Field is an interesting place.
Mitchel Field – Well I have seen photos of a B-36 at an open house and was surprised to see it. I don’t think I ever saw one flying and until I saw the photos would have thought the runway would have been too short – but there it was. Must have come in lightly loaded….
I went to the open house only 1-2 times but have good memories of them. I may have a few more photos around but I’ll have to dig LOL! Seems there are not many photos on the Web about doings at the field – hopefully some will eventually surface. As kids we used to ride our bikes around the base after it closed – got up into the control tower, all the hangars and the ammo bunkers along Hempstead Turnpike. Before it closed I remember seeing a jet fighter firing into the bunker adjacent to Oak Street on the west side of the base. They had it tied down maybe 50 yards from the open bunker filled with sand. May have been 20 mm’s but I don’t remember the A/C type. We also played in the Meadowbrook Creek between the base and the parkway on the east side – especially when the USAF security guys and maybe some Army types were doing small unit training in the woods. They were firing blanks at each other and sneaking around. We had some CB walkie talkies to coordinate our “guerrilla operations” as we observed the training. Never got caught by them but we went around afterwards and collected the numerous unfired blanks (7.62 NATO) and took them home for various “projects” LOL. They were M-14’s in those days.
I don’t remember any other crashes first-hand but heard about them, probably later on. Didn’t know that a C-123 had crashed on Southern State. That would have been a mess – I will have to do some research on that one. I think that sometime after a plane overshot the NE-SW runway and hit the buildings on Hempstead Turnpike they installed a crash barrier on the SW end of that runway. Sort of like the erectable nets used on aircraft carriers back then. I recall that the net stopped one A/C at the time.
Yep – I built a lot of the Aurora models – Japanese Zero (yellow) and the purple ME-109. I remember their plant in West Hempstead too. I eventually “graduated” up to Revell and Monogram models – much more detailed!
I get back there occasionally and drive around. Don’t miss the “Cradle of Aviation” museum that is in one of the old hangars with a new display building. It is an excellent museum with lots of knowledgeable staff walking around. Lots of veterans and former Grumman / Fairchild Republic employees to keep it real…
Thanks for checking in !
Tim
Hi All,
Just came across this today….I was almost 2, in the backyard playing, when the plane crashed between my future best friend’s house and mine. Her house was partially burned, and my father’s car was destroyed (told to me by my parents). My parents had the newspaper article about this, but they have passed away, and I can’t find it. I’m trying to contact Newsday (not sure who covered it), to ask if they might have it in their archives. My parents tell me I’m was the closest survivor to the crash. I’m amazed when I think of how no one on the ground was hurt or killed. I have absolutely no memory of this event to this day. My house address was 55 Barbara Drive.
My mother’s house was one that was affected by this. She was only 5 months old. Her name is June. Are there any other news articles related to this crash?
Hi. I lived at #545, perimeter road. There were only two houses on the south side on the field at the end of runway #5.(South/West) My dad ran hangars #3 and 4; was the line chief; was in charge of the Transit Alert unit. We lived there from 1954 until the base closed in 1961. My back yard was the field itself; I had a ball. Would go into one of the C-119’s at night; tune the radio to listen to “Murry The K, on the Swinging Swar A”. Was a rock & roll station. Anyway, I have a lot of stories to tell. I really miss those days.
Hi Frank. Pretty cool – you spent a lot of time there! I’m sure the statute of limitations has run out on clandestine visits to C-119’s! LOL wow…
After the base closed we rode our bikes all over the base but the only buildings I remember on the south side were the ammo bunkers along Hempstead Turnpike, they were emptied of course and the doors left open. I found a pile of trash that included parts of a supply document listing all types of ammunition that was apparently stored there. Almost as good as finding some “real stuff” !!
Do you remember the huge vertical antenna tower that was temporarily erected on the south east corner of the field after the base stopped aircraft operations? I believe it was maybe a LORAN navigation antenna and was probably 500 feet high, or more. Blinking lights that you could see from everywhere. It was between the present stadium and the east fence line. I can’t find any pictures or references to it, but it was there for awhile, possibly part of a navigation evaluation.
Anyway, thanks for checking in – indeed, fun times to be growing up around there….
Tim
I distinctly remember watching fire crews deliberately set planes on fire so they could practice extinguishing them. My dad would pull our car over to the side of Front Street or Merrick Avenue so we could see the roaring fires. These were really exciting events for me and my brother, ages 8 and 5 at the time. We lived on Richmond Road in East Meadow, part of which was the south-western border of part of the air field. Meadowbrook Parkway serves as the western border now, I think.
We went to Barnum Woods Elementary School and had friends that lived on the air base. Sometimes, we were invited on to the base to go to the movies with our friends at the base’s private theater.
I also remember one of the air shows on Armed Forces Day. I had my first camera with me, a Brownie, and shot my very first photo ever while looking down into the cockpit of a plane. (There was a portable flight of steps you could climb to look into the plane). That one photo led to a life-long interest in photography.
Hi Elyse! Very nice! I seem to remember seeing black smoke columns in the direction of the field occasionally. Our neighbor was a USAF sergeant who was stationed there and he would tell us it’s not a crash, they’re just practicing. I was not close enough to see the actual fires though – would have been real interesting to watch as I’m sure you know! Imagine training firefighters like that today –
Very good on the photography – funny how events and places like that can trigger lifelong interests in young people. I see from your E Mail address you are still doing that!
Thanks for visiting my website & sharing your experience…
Tim
Very interesting article. Moved to East Meadow in 1960 when I turned 5… Lived there for 22 years. Before that, we lived in Woodside Queens. I remember seeing DC-6’s on approach to LGA pass about 100 feet above our house. That, and the Mercury Space Program, fueled my lifelong interest in aerospace.
I remember seeing C-119’s flying in and out of Mitchell Field. I also got to go to an open house there… probably the last one they ever had. Had a great time! Was able to actually go into some planes. The only other open house I ever attended was one at Edwards AFB in Cali back in 1995.
I recall a private plane crashed on Prospect Ave. near the East Meadow Jewish Center sometime in the early 1960’s. I believe the pilot was having some sort of difficulty, tried to make it to Mitchell Field (which may have already been closed), but sadly was unable to do so.
Thanks for this article.
Hi Dave – yep, very similar recollections to mine. I also remember the DC-6/7’s and Constellations flying overhead into Idlewild (aka JFK) and marveling at the first jet airliners that slowly replaced them. Especially the DC-8 and 990’s that were LOUD with their pure turbojets. The fanjet technology quieted engine noise substantially later on. We even saw the Concorde flying in from Europe periodically – REALLY loud….
I also remember the private plane crash on Prospect Ave. We rode our bikes over there but the perimeter was held so we couldn’t see much – but I clearly remember it…Not many nearby places to crash land around there – except Mitchel …
East Meadow was a great place to grow up in during the 50’s and 60’S….
Thanks for visiting my site!
Tim
I grew up in Hempstead N.Y. at 207 Princeton street very close to Mitchell AFB, as I would lie in bed early in the mornings I would hear revile being played and the aircraft being run up for pre flight test or take off. This was in the 1950’s. sometimes I would get up rush to get dressed and get on my bike and ride down Westbury Blvd to the corner of Oak street and Westbury Blvd and watch the different aircraft taxi for take off. At times my neighborhood friends and myself would say let’s go over to Oak street and watch the planes we would get there and climb up to the top of these trees as far as we could go maybe 50 feet or so and get to see T38’s, A26’s big Globemasters, C119,s C46,s C47,s we would get a big thrill to see the pilots in the the planes coming in for landings and to see them touch down on the runway. One early evening a group of us were playing baseball on the corner of Remsen ave and there was a C46 taking off to the west I was watching it and all of a sudden the engines started to sputter then the ship went down we all ran to the crash site and I saw that the plane just made it over Oak street and crashed into a field about a quarter of a mile the plane would have gone into some houses in Garden city that was close. Every May I made it my business to go to the air shows it was a big thrill I can remember in 1957 or 1958 there was a F104 Starfighter at Michell what a bird, later that night as I was in bed this thing fired up and taxied to take off position and hit full afterburner to take off I said what is that the roar just echoed all over what a thrill. My friends ,we all loved to go to the base we would visit the gym and play basketball with the GI,s all of this experience inspired me to join the USAF, my dream was to become a pilot but I became a Jet Aircraft Mechanic and a Hydraulic Repairman. At present I am 71 years old and I have very fond memories of my growing next Mitchell Air Force Base.
Hi Richard – Thanks for the nice note! Seems Mitchel AFB influenced a lot of us to join the military – or at least become interested in the Base activities. It was it pretty hard to miss..
My grandparents lived a few blocks from you on Cornell St (my mother was born there) and I remember visiting them and seeing / hearing all the aircraft flying around. I even camped out overnight with a few buddies on a vacant, wooded field on Oak Street, probably near Westbury Ave, I forget. We even found a failed weather balloon stuck in the trees there – how cool was that… We may have met once!
The good old daze….
Thanks for your service! and thanks for visiting my little website.
Tim
Richard, I also witnessed the C-46 crash landing into the vacant field at the end of Garden St. This aircraft hit the chimneys of the last 4 houses and then took out the power lines at edge of the vacant lot. Both pilots survived. I was 11 or 12 at that time, making it summer 1954 or 55 l think.
The aircraft flew directly over me one block from the crash landing site. He was trying to get to runway 4, almost made it. One engine was trailing white smoke the other was blowing black. Miracle that they did not take out a whole city block. Some job of piloting! Memories. I fly today. Take care. Charles
I remember that crash I believe it crashed into Camp Mills. We lived on Warren St a block from Oak St.
Thank you for your post i am enjoying reading all the stories.
In the 50s and 60s, I grew up on Cunningham Ave, Uniondale , on the west perimeter fence line of the Santini Sub Base portion of Mitchel Field. It was the best neighborhood to grow up in! I can remember all the planes quoted in your article. I used to post myself on the corner of Hempstead Tpke to watch the takeoffs and landings. I also could hear reveille in the morning since the barracks were only about 200 ft from my house. There was a mess hall and a theatre there too. Later after the base closed we explored those buildings. There was a lot to see. One building near us still had maps and insignias on the walls as well as metal Continental Air Command signs. When we got older we used one of the ammo bunkers across Hempstead Tpke as a “fort”. We hung out there until they got ready to demolish it for the coliseum. We ice skated on a rink that the county put on the runway, as well as on the sumps where we played hockey. I still have such great memories of my childhood there. Thanks for an interesting article, it brought me right back!!
Hi Eddie – Thanks for the nice note! I guess when we were all younger, places and events like that became firmly planted in the memory. I would imagine every military base around the country generated similar “community awareness” as well. Interesting places and good times to be growing up, at least in my view…
Thanks for visiting my website!
Tim
Tim:
I enjoyed reading your memories of Mitchel Field and was wondering if you might possibly know anything about another B-26 incident at Mitchel…this one involved an attempted landing during heavy rain – and the way my Dad remembered it was that the plane skidded off the end of the runway, across the grass, through some fences, across a major public street, through another fence and ended up in the backyard of someone’s house.
My father, Earl Kiernan, was a flight surgeon at the time and one of the lucky crew who all managed to walk away from this one. It would have occurred somewhere between 1956 and 1958 by my best guess…and I’m just looking for any information at all that I can find about the accident.
Somewhat humorous circumstances prevailed…and suffering minor cuts and bruises, Dad ordered the crew to Meadowbrook Hospital for booster shots and ended up meeting my mother that night who was a nurse on duty in the E.R.
Any info at all would be greatly appreciated!
Hi Chris – Thanks for checking in…Interesting story! Sounds like you owe your “existence” to a B-26!
I am not familiar with another B-26 crash at Mitchel however there is an online database of all military aircraft “mishaps” in the US. It will be in there someplace, they are sorted by date. I don’t remember offhand the URL but you should be able to find it with a little web searching. I will take a look as well, will let you know if I can locate it.
Thanks for visiting my website!
Tim
Tim,
Thank you so very much for posting the information about this crash. I had just moved to Great Neck from the Bronx when I saw the pictures of the crash on the front page of the Newsday newspaper. Although this event occurred almost 60 years ago, it became one of my “core” memories and so I recalled many of the details surrounding the crash. (In fact, that is what spurred me to search for any information about it.)
I genuinely appreciate the breadth and depth of your comments.
I have always been interested in aviation. I flew KC-135’s for SAC in the late 1960’s and, after leaving the Air Force, owned and flew a broad array of general aviation airplanes (mostly Cessna’s).
Thank you again for the memories.
Hi Steve – Thanks for checking in….There does not seem to be much info out there on the web about this incident but I sure remember it! Impressionable kid I guess….But it sounds like the risks of flying didn’t deter you from pursuing it yourself…
Thanks for visiting my website and thanks for your service!
Tim
I grew up ON Mitchel Field. In fact, I grew up in the commanding Officer’s House on the base after it closed, as my father was the President of Nassau College in the ’60’s &’70’s.
When we first moved there shortly after the closure, it still resembled an active Air Force Base with many artifacts still in place. What an amazing playground for a kid to grow up on!
Hello Lee, Having lived in the Commanding officers house, do you know anything about tunnels from the Commanding officers house to the control tower on the base? I have also heard rumors of a bunker under the parade ground which is today’s Quad.
Hi Dan – yes, there were big storm drains all around there. We used to ride our bikes inside them from a creek exit at Wellington St and Wellington Place in Hempstead. You could go all over town, they were large enough for a small car to fit inside their rectangular concrete cross section. I think we got over near the base too, but I forget if we went further. You couldn’t usually tell where you actually were, the overhead drains were barred.
Hi Tim,
I, too, have vivid but limited memories of the Barbara Dr. accident having lived on Bly Rd. I recall coming home from school, changing and running outside to play. Looking up and seeing the plane in a flat spin so close by was terrifying. For years every time I heard a song that played on the radio that night, I would see that plane again. I remember riding my bike on the newly cemented sidewalk in front of that house years later, visiting a girlfriend who lived several houses away. I also remember standing at our kitchen window seeing plane lights as they approached Mitchel Field, and the frequency of planes overhead as they circled to land possibly at Idlewild (JFK) where my father was a Supervisor for Air France.
Alana, I was looking through this blog today, after my sister sent me a link to it. I noticed your entry, which mentioned that you were living on Bly Road when the 11/2/1955 crash occurred on nearby Barbara Drive. I was 9 at the time, and my family lived at 2001 Bly Road (at the northwest corner of Bly Road and Rose Drive–the closest Bly Road house to the crash site). My bedroom was upstairs with a window in a large dormer, from which I saw the plane spinning in just before crashing very close by on Barbara Drive. Quite an experience, and rather scary to a 9-year-old–but not enough to suppress my interest in aircraft and flying.
Where on Bly Road was your house? I’m glad to see (in the pictures on Google Maps) that the neighborhood is still beautiful, with many houses substantially expanded and all quite well cared for. We moved to San Diego in 1960, and I still live there today. As an engineer in the aerospace electronics business in the 1970s, during a business trip in the Long Island area I made a visit to our old neighborhood. I was quite surprised to see that everything was much smaller and close together than I recalled it being when I used to ride my bike in the neighborhood during the 1950s!
Vincent Andrunas
Hi Vincent,
I was at your house the day of the crash playing dolls with your sister Carol. We were upstairs in
her room when we heard the very loud noise of the plane approaching and as I looked out the
side window I saw the shadow as the plane went over your house and then crashed. I
remember looking out the front window and seeing my Mom running up the street carrying
my sister. To this day I tense up when I hear a plane flying over. I live in Arizona now and
every weekend military jets fly over our house and they are very noisy. I had a terrible fear
of flying until I went to Sky Harbor Airport where a retired pilot gave a Fear Of Flying
lecture and now I have flown to so many places.
I will never forget the day the plane crashed. Oh by the way I lived on Marion Drive.
I would love to hear from your sister.
Hi Barbara – Thanks for that note – I hope you guys can connect!
Long ago and far away but it made a big impression on me as well.
Thanks for visiting my site…Tim
The plane that crashed that day was piloted by my Grandfather , Captain Clayton Elwood. My mother was just 14 at the time of the crash. He had survived flying a B-24 over Europe during WWII. I’m sure he would have been extremely glad that nobody on the ground was injured during the incident. Did you ever hear what the investigation revealed as to the cause of the crash . I had always heard / read that the type of aircraft was very unforgiving in case of an in flight incident, the original B-26 was known as the widow maker when it first came out. Any information you might have on the crash would be great.
Hi David – Thanks for checking in. I’m sure your grandfather did everything he could to recover from whatever problem the aircraft had. Deepest respect for him.
As far as an investigation goes, I don’t know. I think the USAF maintains a crash investigation log with the associated accident investigations. I think it was held at Kirtland AFB in recent years, it may have moved. If I can find it and discover anything useful from it I will report it here.
Have a safe Memorial Day, your grandfather and his generation earned it all for us.
Thanks,Tim
Hi, Dave. My name is Gordon Marko, I was stationed Mitchell A.F.B. During this incident, and has effected me my whole life. I am presently 84 years old and sill fly my own personal aircraft. In good health and business owner here in Massachusetts. Would like to hear from you, if possible. Mitchell A.F.B. is in my heart always. Please call me, Sgt.Slater was a great guy, in my heart also. My number is 508.753.7008, please call, would sincerely love to hear from you. With best regards, sincerely, Gordon C. Marko, 2nd tow target squadron.
My dad was an oil truck driver making a home delivery in East Meadow the day the A-26 crashed. He said it was spinning and crashed about three blocks from where he was. He said it looked like someone was attempting to bail out of a window. Being a volunteer fireman in the Farmingdale Fire Department at the time, he borrowed some kid’s bicycle to head to the crash site as he didn’t want to drive an oil truck there. When he got there, all he could do was help the folks in the houses nearby. He took me to see the C-123 that landed on Southern State Parkway. I was only three, and don’t recall a thing. However, he said all on board survived, but one driver was killed when his car was crushed when a wing was torn off and landed on the car.
Hi John – Thanks for checking in. It was probably very difficult to get out of one of those A/C, probably out via the canopy but not much time. And the props are right there….
That C-123 crash landing on Southern State was near Route 109 or 110. I have seen a good photo of the wreck on the web. If I can find it again, I’ll post it.
Thanks for adding to the story,,Tim
I grew up in Merrick and remember the plane crash on Southern State Parkway. I also seem to remember that after the base had closed that on at least one occasion a commercial airliner mistakenly landed at Mitchell Field instead of Laguardia. The story was in NEWSDAY IIRC and would have been in the early sixties. Anybody else remember this?
Hi Bill – Interesting about the commercial A/C error. Happens even today occasionally (recently in Tampa). I don’t remember that one at Mitchel but I think the runways were intact for quite awhile before Hofstra began encroaching.
Anyone recall this event?
Hi Tim-Does anybody out there have any information on the crash of a B-17 in 1941? I don’t know if there were casualties among the crew but a young boy was killed on the ground. My mother who was a life long LI resident told me this story as the boy who died was the son of a local doctor (who later was my pediatrician). Dr. Kramer’s office was a yellow brick house that was on Jerusalem Ave in Uniondale and I think is still there.
Fast forward to 1991 and I am working in Parma, Ohio. Several blocks away a local store owner had in his front window everyday (I don’t know about weekends) a copy of the long gone CLEVELAND NEWS from exactly 50 years ago each day until 1995 following the activities of WWII up until the end of the war. One day as I was passing by and scanning the paper there was a reference to this accident and that first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was offering support for the family. I don’t recall the date and I didn’t think to ask if I could make a copy.
On a less somber note I do recall that the W.T. Grant store in Hempstead had large murals throughout the store of the base. For a brief period in 56-57 I had an uncle stationed there and their housing unit was where they built that garbage/fuel recycling facility (corner of Merrick Ave and Livingston Ave?) On one occasion he took me to a football game on the post. Later I got a tour with the Cub Scouts. I also remember the training fires. Long Island was a great place to grow up in the 50’s & 60’s
Hi Bill …Well I don’t have any info about the B-17 crash on Long Island. I think there are websites that catalog plane crashes by year, by location (more or less). I don’t have the URL’s offhand but I’ve seen it. It’s where I found the tail number of the A-26 crash A/C.
I certainly remember the murals at that store in Hempstead. They were huge and I recall there were some above the “soda fountain” bar. Apparently there are other WWII era murals still existing in one of the remaining buildings at Mitchel, maybe the NCO Club? I’ve seen some pix of them, unpreserved, but still there. Too bad that all that history is fading away but that’s progress I guess.
Yes! Long Island was a great place to grow up back then. I get back there occasionally and enjoy “re-absorbing” it all once again. Thanks for visiting my site! Tim
Tim,
My father’s family lived on Park Ave in Uniondale, about a mile south of the crash you wrote about. My aunt related to me how she witnessed it. She was about 18 years old and was having a little spat with my grandmother. She walked out onto the front porch and heard an aircraft overhead, but the engine didn’t sound right. She looked up, saw a puff of smoke and the pilot bail out from the plane and the plane headed down. She ran in and told my grandmother and said the fire company across the street would soon be going out( of which her father and two brothers were members).
Dr. Kraemer was my father’s physician for a number of years.
I grew up in the shadow of Mitchel field and have great memories of watching C-119 “Flying Boxcars” fill the sky overhead.I guess that’s what has given me my lifelong love of aviation and building aircraft models.
Hi Tim-
The NEWSDAY of 12/28/61 has an article about a Four engine DC-7 that landed and then quickly took off. This happened on 12/26/61 and was witnessed by an Air Force officer still stationed there. He reported it to the FAA which tried to track down the the aircraft. No airline reported any of their pilots was the wayward culprit and the article ends by saying they think it was an Eastern Airlines plane.
The NEWSDAY of 9/3/41 carried the story of the plane crash that killed Dr. Kramer’s daughter (not son) and two other small children who were outside playing. The plane involved was a P-39 AirCobra (not a B-17).
Hi Bill – very interesting stuff. I guess a “touch and go” would certainly be noticed! I think people still occasionally land at the wrong airport, a recent one was a C-17 in Tampa I think. But Mitchel AFB is a long was from JFK or LGA. Major Oops…. Nothing to see here, move along…
OK on the P-39 crash. I had not seen that article but I think a B-17 crash on LI would be hard to miss in a historical search. Thanks for the info….The stories unfold…
Tim
I was stationed at Mitchel from late 1957 until July of 1959. Played on the base football team. Ours was the only team photo I can find on the internet (1958). I can remember the c-123 crash on the parkway. Some of us arrived there shortly after the incident. As I recall it was somewhere around 11:00 p.m.. I don’t remember a fire. I was with communications and drove to a site just off the base. I think it was on Merrick. The Roosevelt Raceway was just across Stewart, and I could watch the ponies run from my barrack’s window. As I recall, everything East of Hempstead was pretty rural in those days. I visited the area just a few years ago and can’y believe how all that has changed. All of your comments bring back great memories
Hi Bob – Thanks for checking in with your recollections. Yes the areas east of Hempstead and Mitchel AFB was pretty rural but the post-WWII housing boom was underway in the 1950’s. Our house in East Meadow was built in 1946 but you are right – hard to recognize the area today..
Thanks for your service! Tim
I grew up in Seaford during those years and remember seeing all those planes, mostly Boxcars and C47s and going to Mitchel with my father for the holiday airshows.
I don’t remember the B26 crash but do remember a jet fighter crash in Wantagh which
Destroyed several houses.
I also remember seeing a wrecked fuselage of an unidentifiable aircraft in the woods on the west side of the Meadowbrook Pkwy south of Hempstead Tpke. I think the parkway was eventually widened and the wreck removed. This was opposite the barracks which were on the east side of the Meadowbrook.anyone remember them? I believe they are still standing today and are apartments.r
I was 12 years old, living in Garden City at the time of the A-26 crash in East Meadow and persuaded my Father to drive me there to see things for myself. I still have a small piece of aluminum plating from the aircraft – natural metal finish on one side and green zinc chromate on the other.
Tim…11/2/55 I was living in New Hyde Park attending 1st grade at PS115 Queens in Floral Park, not quite an airplane fan yet. Found your pix in a google search for Mitchel AFB and posted it up to my C-130 page on facebook in the website above. Don’t find many C-130 pix from back then. Wondering if you have more pix of the C-130 from back then especially in the 50s. My facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/jtabaco/ and my webpage is at http://www.tabacofamily.com/jtabaco/jtabaco.html. Hope you are doing well these days…joey
Hi Joey – Well I am pretty sure it would have been a C-130A model (3-bladed props) but unfortunately that is the only photo I have of it at Mitchel Field. They flew over our house routinely in the 50’s-60’s…Down the Runway 30 ILS….(along with those C-124 beasts!)
I don’t “do” facebook but was able to see your post… Thanks for checking in! Tim
Here’s another “I saw it, too!” message. I lived in Garden City and was with my mom in the car heading to our church children’s activity in Uniondale on the afternoon of November 2, 1955. I was almost 12, and being bored, I decided I would keep my eyes on the plane I saw circling over Mitchell Field. (Had it circled the field before it crashed, or is that a false memory?) Anyway as I was watching out the car window, the plane started to fly away from the field. I continued to watch, horrified as I saw it slowly start to fall from the sky (as if in slow motion), and disappear behind the houses. I was yelling to my mom to “Look” but of course she was driving and only caught a glance. But we both saw the black plume of smoke as it rose in front of us at a distance. I had tried vainly a few years ago to find an article about the crash (it was in the Herald Tribune, and I took the article to school to report on it to my home room class). Tonight I decided to look again, and found your great blog. It’s amazing to realize there were several others who wrote about witnessing this tragedy at that point in time, over 60 years ago… I think I remember reading in the Herald Tribune or seeing on the TV news that the two crew members were yelling to people on the ground to get away. What I saw that day is burned into my memory, as real now as my memories of the day Kennedy was assassinated or 9-11… just one of those things we will remember all our lives.
Hi Judy – Well more proof that I didn’t imagine this…I’m not sure what papers covered the story – that are retrievable today. The photo was in the Daily News, probably Newsday and others. Thanks for visiting and including your eye witness account… Tim
Loved your recollections. I grew up in Glen Oaks just across the city-line from Nassau Cty in northeast Queens. Back in the mid-‘50s I would sit on a big rock on Suicide Hill (glacial moraine-Long Island’s highest topographic feature) and gaze at the sky. I was rewarded one day with a spectacular airshow to the south. Paratroopers jumping from Flying Boxcars (C-119?) and the Flying Wing !
Another day I was walking home on 74th Avenue from the Little League ball field and ( I swear it’s true) a B-58 Hustler came screaming overhead seemingly feet from the rooftops.
I too built model airplanes (and ships, cars, Visible V-8, Borazon 40- mile team).
Also fan of Big Picture, Navy Log, Sky King, Captain Midnight, Whirlybird-Birds.
My dad was a WW2 Navy Seabee and encouraged my interest. He brought the family to visit West Point, the Mothball fleet of Liberty Ships up the Hudson River.
Hi Steve – Thanks for stopping by! Wow – A B-58, I’ve never seen one of those but would have probably heard one if it landed at Mitchel!
Mitchel hosted a C-119 Troop Transport unit, lots of them flying around but I never saw any jumpers – that would be cool to see…
Yup – I think Long Island was a great place (and time) to grow up … Thanks for visiting..Tim
Interesting growing up near a military air base. My formative years (4-5) in 1960-61 were spent in a house off the departure end of Klamath Falls AFB. They were flying F-101 Voodoos and Dad and I would run out into the yard and watch them climbing out full afterburner. Shook the house like that scene in “Strategic Air Command” with the B-36’s taking off. You could feel them in your chest. Mom hated it.
PS: the Purple Me-109! My first ever plastic model! Might be a figment of my imagination, but I think mine had little sparklies in that lurid purple plastic. Now I understand that it was a given that these would be painted. I never did. I liked how it looked in the sun.
CHEERS DE JIM K6FWT
Hi Jim – You triggered some of my old brain cells! When I was a kid we had an old wood boat that I rowed out to the middle of Shinnecock Bay (Long Island). Anchored and fished for flounder (lots!). There was a USAF Air Defense unit at West Hampton Beach AFB flying F-101’s. Cool to watch. However they would often see this lone rowboat in the middle of the bay and then BUZZ me at very low altitude and scare the P outta me. Could not hear them before they were on top…
Also, Sonic BOOMS were heard quite often in those days on Long Island. With Mitchel and West Hampton Beach AFB, Calverton, Grumman, Republic and USN Second Fleet Ops out in the Atlantic there was a lot of supersonic activity going on. This was before Jet Noise (The Sound of Freedom) didn’t offend everyone!
The purple ME-109 model. Exactly! I remember the little sparklies in the plastic too. Good times! Tim
Hi Tim,
Just ran across your site. I can identify with all the comments here. I grew up in Levittown 1947-63 on Bayberry La. I remember the day an F-86 crashed on a ball field north of Hempstead Tpke along Jerusalem Rd. We kids ran up to the site to watch the event. We collected pieces of Plexiglas from the canopy. The pilot bailed out and was whisked away by the Nassau County Police if memory serves me. The whole affair was cleaned up rather quickly. I remember my Dad taking me to the air shows at Mitchel. He was an Army 1st Lt. who served in the South Pacific during WW-2. My best friend Gil’s father was a Tech Sgt. in the USAF stationed at Mitchel until it closed, and he was transferred to Washington State. We went to the PX on base with his mom.
A lot has changed on Long Island since those days but several of the original buildings and Hangars are still there. I still live on the Island.
Regards,
Jack 10/23
Hi Jack – Yep a great (and interesting!) time to grow up on Long Island.
Thanks for visiting and providing your comment! Cheers, Tim
WNBC would like to do a story on this crash in honor of Veterans who served our country on the homefront. I would like to talk to folks who remember this crash who lived on Barbara Drive. Would you please contact me at john.albertson@nbcuni.com. Thank you
Hi John – I am the author of the Webpost regarding the aircraft crash in East Meadow. Unfortunately I have no way to contact the many who replied with Comments to my post. I have posted your query on the Website. Absent a visit to Barbara Drive and finding any long-term residents I don’t know how to get your request to the right people.
Thanks for visiting my site,,, Tim