The day was Dec. 16, 1960, and two airplanes had collided in midair over Staten Island. One, a United Airlines DC-8 from Chicago heading to Idlewild (now Kennedy) International Airport, smashed into buildings in Sterling Place, just west of Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn … many thought a bombing occurred. Later that year, the USS Constellation — which was built by New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, NY — a fire broke out in the last stages of her building. Fifty civilian workers died in the blaze.
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“PILLAR OF FIRE CHURCH”? OMG!!!
I WAS A SOPHOMORE IN JOHN JAY WHEN I HEARD ABOUT THE CRASH.I WALKED THERE WITH FRIENDS AFTER SCHOOL ABOUT TEN BLOCKS.I VOLUNTEERED WITH SALVATION ARMY AT SCENE AND HELPED FOR TWO DAYS I WILL NEVER FORGET.WHAT A DISASTER.
I remember the plane crash so well. I was attending St Saviors Elementary school and lived on 9th Street. It was so frightening because we didn’t know what had happened. I remember that the little boy that survived was taken to the hospital near the school.
50 years ago
WAS ANYBODY IN MANUAL OR NOW JOHN JAY HIGH SCHOOL
My moms best friend from college, Rebecca Woodward died in that crash. She was a sorority sister of my moms and had told my mom that because she traveled so much that she felt she would die in a plane crash. My mom still has the Christmas present that Miss Woodward had given to her before she left to return to New York for Christmas with her family.
my great grandfather, i never met him, died in that plane.
i live on streling place and i have actually found pieces of the plane when they were buliding the apartment bulidings a couple years ago
My mom use to live a few blocks away when this happened, she was so paranoid that she moved to Sunset Park. Three years later a car crashed into the front gate of her house, hmmmm. Needless to say, she is still there. Better a Buick than a Boeing!
I was in the 4th grade in Long Island City, Queens. About 10:45 we heard the sirens of what seemed like every fire truck in Queens heading to Brooklyn. In those days we went home for lunch and I remember my Mom had the TV on and there was a live broadcast from the location of the crash. I also remember seeing the pictures in the Daily News of the Boy who survived the impact but died at the hospital.
I was at school in St Francis Xavier in President St just a few blocks away. It was the day before my birthday. Next day Dec 17 my father k me out to buy a birthday gift at the Lionel train store and we passd by to see. My aunt lived on Sterling and 7th right where it happened. I remember only a young boy survived but later died the next day. It was terrible. Very depressing. I’ll never forget. My brother was in St Augustine at the time and it jsut missed St. Augustine.
My aunts brother was the flight engineer on the TWA.
I believe it was caused by the United DC-8 flying past its holding point. They were flying to fast and descended at a high rate of speed. It then collided in midair over Staten Island with a TWA L-1049 Super Constellation. The TWA plane fell in pieces onto Miller Field Airport (now a park on Staten Island). The United plane was unable to remain in the air for long and crashed in Park Slope.
I lived around the corner on 6th and Sterling, across from St. Augustine’s. It was hard to believe that in a split second, the apts of friends were totally gone, the candy store, and the church. Oddly, the church’s cross was the only thing remaining.
I was in grammar school on Staten Island that day, and remember the building shook from the overhead collision. When I got home, my parents told me what happened. I remember this news footage, too, and the story of the boy who had initially survived. It’s still vivid 48 years later.
OMG,I grew up in Park Slope,(7th Ave-bn 59)for years and years heard about this crash. Went by that empty lot on the crn of Sterling&7th on the bus my entire childhood. The empty lot and low rise funeral hm put up after the crash because of the damage to the existing building) now gone, in favor of more profitable dwellings. But every time I get on a plane and see someone NOT turn off their electronic device, I think of this crash, because they always said it was caused by a transistor radio.