A colleague was asking about our new place the other day and told me about a plane crash that happened right behind our apartment in 1960. He said up until last year nothing resided at the site of the crash, not even a memorial. I checked it out when I got home that night and sure enough, our backyard is steps away from the site of the crash. Now you’ll find a brand new condo building in its place.
Sterling Place and 7th Avenue on the day of the crash
From about.com on the crash:
On Friday, December 16, 1960, a cold, gray morning, a United Airlines DC-8 originating in Chicago and a TWA Super Constellation, outbound from Columbus, collided above Staten Island. The TWA flight crashed at Miller Field, in the New Dorp section of Staten Island. Fortunately no one on the ground was injured there. The United flight plunged into Park Slope’s Sterling Place, near Seventh Avenue, killing five people on the ground. In all, 135 people perished in what was the worst air disaster of its day.
The United flight narrowly missed the now defunct St. Augustine’s Academy (Sterling Place near Sixth Avenue) which was filled with school children, then hit a brownstone (126 Sterling Pl) before careening into the ironically-named Pillar of Fire church (at 123 Sterling Pl), destroying it completely. Wallace E. Lewis, a 90-year old caretaker was in the church at the time and was one of the five people killed on the ground. According to the New York Times report, the other victims were Charles J. Cooper, who was out shoveling snow, Joseph Colacano and John Opperisano, who were selling Christmas trees on the Sterling Place sidewalk, and Jacob Crooks who was walking his dog.
This was the first I heard about the crash and there seems to be little information about it online. Maybe a memorial wouldn’t be a bad idea?
