Brooklyn’s deadliest airdistaster

On 16 December 1960, a United Airlines Flight 826 landing from Chicago and TWA Flight 266 coming from Ohio collided in mid-air and plummeted onto Staten Island and the brownstones of Park Slope.

Debris from the United plane and sections of fuselage pummeled the buildings and sidewalks. One piece falling on the McCaddin Funeral Home, causing embalmed corpses to fly into the air and onto the street. The Pillar of Fire Church was engulfed in flames and the left wing of the plane slashed through the apartment building next door. In the middle of the intersection, the entire tail section fell upright.

128 passengers and six people on the ground were killed in the disaster. via Atlas Obscura >

Sir Edmund Hillary had booked a seat on Flight 826, but missed the flight after arriving too late at O’Hare airport.

There are very few reminders of one of the world’s worst aviation disasters. One woman who moved into Sterling Place in 2002 had frequent nightmares about a plane hitting her apartment. She assumed the dreams were related to 911 until she saw photos of the forgotten crash with her apartment in them.

Newsreel footage of the crash here >