New York – New Monument Marks 1960 Brooklyn Air Crash

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    Bagpipers warm-up before the start of an unveiling ceremony at Green-Wood Cemetery in New York, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010. The historic cemetery has a new memorial honoring the 134 people who died in a midair plane collision over New York City 50 years ago. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)New York – A historic cemetery has a new memorial honoring the 134 people who died in a midair plane collision over New York City 50 years ago.

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    Bagpipers played “Amazing Grace” as about 150 people, including relatives, watched the unveiling of a granite monument on Thursday. A bronze plaque bears the names of the victims of the Dec. 16, 1960 crash.

    The collision of a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA propeller plane left a legacy of improved air safety in its wake.

    The United plane destroyed at least 10 buildings when it crashed into the Park Slope neighborhood.

    The memorial is at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery.

    It is the final resting place of many notables, including composer Leonard Bernstein.

    Kevin Root, right, hugs Fern Liddy near a just-unveiled monument to the victims of the midair plane collision on Dec. 16, 1960, in Green-Wood Cemetery in New York, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010. Both of Root's parents, Sam and Florence Root, were killed in the collision; Sam Root was also Liddy's employer at the time. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)


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    13 years ago

    The Civil Aeronautics Board blamed Capt. Sawyer of United Flt. 826, for causing the Dec. 16, 1960 midair collision over Staten Island. It stated that Capt. Sawyer was 11 miles off course, and he deviated from his assigned holding pattern at the Preston intersection. Because of that deviation, he collided with TWA Flt. 266, at a right angle. However, the FAA and the air traffic controllers at both Idlewild and Laguardia also bore some culpability. For one thing, the controllers at those two airports did not coordinate their actions, when the two blips showed up on the radar screen. Secondly, the TWA flight was not warned in time to make a sharp left. The controllers didn’t have a clue that both flights were at 5000 feet and closing fast. Also, at that time, the FAA allowed aircraft, under 10,000 feet, to approach an airport at over 250 knots. Because of that crash, there were vast improvements made in air traffic control. Pilots were required to report to ATC, when any of their navigational instruments malfunctioned. This collision is the only one in the history of commercial aviation in the USA, whereby two commercial airliners collided over a major metropolitan area.

    BLONDI
    BLONDI
    13 years ago

    was leonard bernstein jewish? and if yes, why is he buried in greenwood cemetary?