A Short History of Adirondack Airplane Crashes
Yesterday's tragic death of two in the crash of a Piper Cherokee 140 single engine aircraft en route from Saratoga to Malone recalls the sometimes perilous nature of airplane travel in the Adirondacks. While the investigation is still underway, New York State Police have confirmed that Daniel R. Wills, age 48, of North Bangor, and his passenger Ronald E. Rouselle, age 66, of Malone, were killed in a crash that appears to have occurred at about 4,600 feet near Tahawas in the Santanoni Mountain Range in Newcomb. The accident appears to be the second fatal crash at Santanoni; a 1984 crash of a small private plane at Santanoni Peak also killed two. That same year a Cessna 206 crashed into Boreas Mountain. That aircraft, containing the skeleton of the pilot, was discovered by hikers in 1990.
Here is a list of nearly 30 plane crashes that have happened in the Adirondacks since 1912:
1912 - A Curtiss-Wright Bi-plane fitted with pontoons (believed to be the first airplane to fly over the Adirondacks) crashed into Raquette Lake; the pilot (Robert J. Collier, heir to Colliers weekly and the first President of the Aero Club of America) was unhurt and the plane was salvaged.
1926 - A private plane attempting to land on Lake George plunges through thin ice; the pilot and two passengers, who were on their way to Lake Placid were rescued by boat.
1928 - George Walker, the 27 year old President of Albany Air Service, crashed his Waco biplane into the Nazarene Church steeple in Wilmington. Two local boys were with him in the plane and they escaped unhurt, but Walker was seriously injured and it was considered a miracle he survived.
1931 - Three people were injured when their private plane crashed into a tree while landing at a makeshift airport on the Baldwin-Ticonderoga Road.
1934 - American Airlines Curtis Condor biplane crashes into Wilder Mountain, all four onboard survived.
1939 - The motor of a small private plane failed to gain altitude while taking off from Lake Clear Airport. The pilot, Herman Perry of Paul Smiths, survived.
1939 - One woman was injured when a chartered seaplane crashed into Pollywog Pond near the Saranac Inn. The pilot and another passenger were unhurt.
1942 - One man is killed and one survives when they stole an Aeronca from the Wesport air strip, ran out of gas, and crashed between Moriah and Port Henry.
1943 - Two Royal Canadian Air Force flyers on a training mission crashed into Wilmington Peak, north of the Whiteface Memorial Highway, in a snowstorm. They had been circling looking for a place to land; both men were killed.
1944 - Army National Guard C-46 transport crashes three miles west of Lewes Lake on Blue Ridge Mountain near Speculator. The wreckage was discovered in August 1945 by searchers looking for a civilian plane that went down between Lake Placid and Booneville.
1945 - A two seat Taylorcraft crashed on Labounty Hill, about a half mile from Saranac Lake; both the plane's occupants were killed.
1945 - A small plane carrying three people flying from Lake Placid to Rome, NY crashed on Bullhead Mountain in Johnsburg. A search failed to locate the accident site and it remained undiscovered until a hunter came upon the crash several months later, along with the two women and one male pilot who were killed in the crash.
1950 - Two men survive the crash of their Fairchild trainer when it goes down off River Road in Lake Placid.
1958 - Julian Reiss, owner of Santa's Workshop, and his daughter crashed near Moose Pond but were able to walk out to safety a day later. When Reiss returned to the spot in hopes of salvaging the plane, he discovered someone had stolen the planes 450 pound engine.
1959 - A NYS Department of Conservation plane on a fish stocking mission crashed into the side of Mt. MacNaughton after taking off from Lake Clear Airport. Four survived, but Chester Jackson of Saranac Lake was killed.
1962 - A B-47 bomber crashes into Wright Peak while on a training mission; four were killed.
1969 - The deadliest aircraft accident in Adirondack history occurred when a Mohawk Airlines commuter turbojet crashed into a mountain near Pilot Knob on Lake George. The plane had left New York City, made a stop in Albany to discharge 33 passengers, and was circling for a landing at the Warren County Regional Airport in Queensbury when it went off course. All fourteen on board were killed.
1969 - A Cherokee 140 piloted by F. Peter Simmons crashed in Iroquois Mountain. Simmons was badly hurt but was rescued and recovered.
1972 - A Bonanza en route from Montreal to Albany with two on board is reported missing. A hunter discovers the wreckage and two bodies near Meacham Lake in 1973.
1974 - An F-106 jet on a training mission from Griffiss Air Force base crashes near Hopkinton. The body of the pilot, who ejected before the crash, is found 20 miles away near Seveys Corners.
1978 - An eleven passenger Piper Navajo crashes at 3,100 feet near the summit of Nye Mountain. Three were killed, but a dog on the plane walked through miles of wilderness and arrived at Lake Placid 10 days later.
1980 - A Beechcraft Baron carrying two pilots and a family of three crashes into Blue Hill on its approach to Lake Clear; all five are killed.
1984 - A small private plane crashes into Santanoni Peak killing two.
1984 - A Cessna 206 crashes into Boreas Mountain. The aircraft and the skeleton of the pilot, are discovered by hikers in 1990.
1986 - Two Massachusetts Air National Guard A-10 Thunderbolt jets crashed near Wells while training. One of the plane's pilots was killed; the otehr safely ejected.
1992 - An early morning Plattsburgh flight of a USAir Express 19 commuter plane crashes into Blue Hill while descending to land at Lake Clear; two of the four on board survive.
2000 - Two men barely survive the crash of a small private plane near Lake Placid.
2004 - A single engine Piper Arrow crashes within a mile of Lake Clear Airport while en route to Virginia. Pilot Paul Grulich and his wife Alice were both killed.
2007 - A twin engine Beech private plane crashes at Lake Clear Airport killing the pilot.
Photo: An early plane crash from the holdings of the National Archives.
7 Comments:
This is from 2004:
Capital Airlines owner and pilot Milton F. Marshall, died in the crash of a small plane in Ticonderoga, Saturday, July 10, 2004.
Marshall, 75, of Roxbury, Conn. was piloting a Capital Airlines Piper Navajo Chieftain Saturday morning when the plane flew into Old Fort Mountain behind the Ticonderoga Country Club and burst into flames.
Also killed was passenger Michael Keilty, 40, of Sandy Hook, Conn., who was coming to Ticonderoga Municipal Airport to join his wife at a camp in Putnam, Washington County. Keilty had used Capital Airlines in the past to get to his camp.
Capital Airlines is based at the Waterbury-Oxford Airport in Oxford, Conn. Marshall, a retired commercial airline pilot, started the company in 1986.
1984 - A small private plane crashes into Santanoni Peak killing two.
I covered this one for the Ticonderoga Sentinel. I thought it was 1981 but I see the NTSB records say July 1984. I believe it was a twin-engine cargo plane with a pilot and co-pilot on board.
-- Lohr McKinstry
I don't know whether it counts, but I seem to recall an ultralight solo plane crashed into the woods near NCCC and Lake Flower in Saranac Lake back in the mid to late '90s. Jim Munn was the pilot, was injured but survived.
I recall a small plane crash in the winter of 1988-89 that occurred as the plane was either approaching or had just taken off from the Lake Placid airport during a snow storm. It was found after a search not too far off the end of the runway. The pilot, the only one on the plane, died in the crash.
Mark Kurtz, Saranac Lake
What about the huge cargo plane that had an emergency/crash landing at Lake Clear years ago?
The following is reprinted from the March 25 and March 27, 2009 Jay Community News (http://www.jaynews.org/).
Careful readers will note that a 1934 date is given in the first piece and an 1911 date in the second.
March 25, 2009, Jay Community News
Did you know that a plane crash landed in Upper Jay? Yep, it was in 1934 and maybe there are people out there that remember it. Perhaps someone has a memory to share about this. Let us hear from you.
Thanks to Doug Wolfe, we have an article about it and I have put it here for your perusal. Trudy
Plane Wrecked
Air Pilot Injured When Army Bombing Plane, Making Trip Around Country, Comes to Grief 15 Miles from Lake Placid.
Giant Martin Machine Loses Way in Fog. Flew over Placid Saturday. Makes Bad Landing with Crew of Five Men.
Just 30 minutes after a giant airplane flew over Lake Placid last Saturday afternoon, on a tour of the entire United States, it made a very poor landing at Upper Jay, injured one member of its crew and came very close to disaster.
The plane, a Martin bomber, had left Minneola, Long Island the day before, hopping to Augusta, ME.
While flying over the White Mountains on the way to Cleveland, they encountered a severe electric storm that put their compasses out of order. The navigator lost his bearings in the dense fog that followed. They kept going, crossing Vermont and entering the Adirondacks. They nearly came to grief on Whiteface Mountain, but discovered the peak just in time to swerve to one side.
It was then discovered that the gas supply was low and that a landing would have to be made soon. They attempted to land on the old Newman race track, but were forced to rise again due to fences.
They headed for Upper Jay, where they came down on a broad plane. The steering wheel broke as they hit the ground and the huge machine buried its nose into the ground.
From the March 27, 2009 Jay Community News:
If anyone has something to tell about this or has pictures or pieces of the wreckage, please let Jay News know. Thanks.
A REPAIR AT 12,000 FEET HIGH AND 80 MPH
The Glenn Martin Bomber's (GMB) crew faced daily crises, resembling scenes from "Mission Impossible." On the third day out, the pilots navigated through a violent thunderstorm, losing their compass when the magnets fell off mid-flight. In the freezing cold, the crew removed their goggles so they wouldn't freeze to their skin. Over mountains and in a fierce storm, they hoped to fly out of bad weather and land safely -- anywhere they could. At 12,000 feet, the right engine began to run rough. Dobias and Harding huddled in the rear gunner's pit, second-guessing the cause of the problem. There seemed no choice but to have a closer look Seymour describes it from the log entry:
"They reach up, grasp the rail on top of the fuselage and scan the motor. There's oil spewing out and it could be coming from the cam shaft. There may be a way to tighten up the protective covering.
Dobias moves forward, lowers himself slowly over the side until his feet touch the bottom wing, grabs a firm hold on cross-bars, and makes his way out to the laboring motor. As they suspected, the problem centers on the cam shaft. He turns and nods to Harding who passes him a hammer and chisel. With nearly frozen fingers he manages to make some adjustments and turns back toward the fuselage...His whole body is shaking...
The right engine ran smoother, as they flew out of the storm and past the mountains. But darkness was approaching and fuel was low. Harmon piloted a forced landing in a field near Jay, NY with GMB's nose dug into the ground due to a collapsed landing gear. Miraculously, the only injury was to Lt. Smith's ankle. The engines and props escaped ruin, but the rest of GMB didn't fare as well. Besides the shattered nose, damage included: blown tires, broken struts, bent axles, broken wing ribs and rigging wires as well as tears to 50 % of the fuselage fabric. Both engines were unmounted and sat in the weeds protected by a tarp. When the new parts arrived at the crash site from Martin's factory, the crew welcomed the willing hands of locals to dig a pit which allowed positioning of the aircraft for access to replace the metal nose. A restoration of this magnitude in a fully operational maintenance facility would have been challenging -- to have completed the task in less than 30 days in the middle of the field, took leadership, skill, and innovative teamwork.
(From Repairs in the Air - May 2007 Issue - (Aircraft Maintenance Technology)
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