Airplane Accident at Mongaup Pond - 1934
"A
sixteen-passenger Condor bi-plane of the American Airlines Company which
left Newark airport about 4 o'clock last Saturday evening, enroute for
Chicago, with Syracuse as the first stop, got lost in the fog and storms
after passing Newburgh, and about 5 o'clock crashed against a 2800-feet peak
of the lower Catskill range of mountains, a peak known as "the Last Chance,"
near Mongaup Pond and nine miles northeast of DeBruce and near the boarder
of Sullivan And Ulster counties. The plane caught fire and burned and the
seven occupants were burned to death, or killed by the fall and then burned.
Those killed in the crash were:
- Clyde Holbrook, pilot, of LaGrange, Ill
- John Barron, Jr., co-pilot, of Chicago
- Miss Ada Huckeby, stewardness, of Chicago.
- Harry Pinsley, theatrical booking agent, of New York.
- Harold C. Coppins, factory superintendent of F.N. Burt & Co.,Ltd., paper box manufacturers, of Buffalo.
- E.W.B. Bader, chemical engineer, of Buffalo.
-
William Andrew Cass, an executive of F.N. Burt & Co.,Ltd., of Buffalo.
"Two
of those on board were to have been married soon. Miss Huckeby had told
friends that she was making her last flight as stewarddess and had made
plans for her wedding. Mr. Pinsley also was engaged to be married soon to an
actress. The three other passengers were married and had families awaiting
them in Buffalo.
..." to be continued.
June 14, 1934
Sullivan County Democrat
***
"When the plane failed to arrive at Syracuse in its scheduled two hours'
time, search began for it, and during all day Sunday many planes were flying
through the air over the area, along and adjacent to the airline route
trying to locate the lost plane.
"The first intimation that the plane had reached the vicinity of Mongaup
Pond came early Monday in a report to the state police that it had last been
seen near DeBruce, about five miles from the mountain. W.H. Hallock and Lee
Lord, private pilots of Wurtsboro, volunteer searchers, undertook an air
search to check these reports.
"Soon after 11 o'clock Monday morning, Hallock sighted a brown scar in the
dark green of the mountainside. He dropped down as close as possible and
circled. Sure that he had found the plane, he flew to Livingston Manor,
about twelve miles to the south, landed and called first the state police
and then Earl Ward, American Air Lines manager at Newark.
"Airplanes by the dozen then began to flock to the landing fields at
Livingston Manor and Liberty. The roads were crowded with cars rushing to
the scene or as near as they could get. City news and camera men were on the
job, and there was great excitement in that section of Sullivan County. ..."
June 14, 1934
Sullivan County Record
***
"It was after 3 p.m., Monday, when the first
searching party, guided by Hallock, succeeded in making its way to the scene
of the wreck. For hours they climbed through a thick tangle of underbrush,
across gullies and streams up the mountainside before they reached the
scorched and broken treetops that marked the plane's path to destruction.
The plane had cut an eighty-foot swath through the tree-tops for fifty yards
and then crashed to the ground and burst into flames.
"With Hallock were Dr. Victor Bourke, coroner of Livingston Manor; Captain
Daniel E. Fox of the state police and Sergeants Hopkins, Mangan and Hofer.
"The party found two mail bags, one intact and one partly burned, but with
most of the mail safe. Among the charred remnants of other luggage they
discovered Bader's bag, which they opened. Inside they found several bottles
that Dr. Bourke said contained picric acid crystals, which he said were
highly explosive. They apparently had been undisturbed by the crash. ..."
June 14, 1934
Sullivan County Record
***
"The bodies of three of those on board, Harold
Coppins and Harry Pinsley, passengers, and Miss Ada Huckeby, the stewardess,
were thrown clear of the wreckage by the impact.
"Fire consumed part of the fuselage and much of the wings and burned a
100-foot circle of timber about the plane. One of the two motors, weighing
1,200 pounds, was ripped from its frame on the crumpled wing and hurled
thirty feet into the woods.
"Pilot Holbrook was an ace flyer in the world war and had seventeen years'
experience in flying.
"The bodies of the seven victims were removed to the Russell undertaking
rooms at Livingston Manor and the McGibbon & Curry rooms at Liberty. The
bodies of the two Buffalo men were brought through Jeffersonville Tuesday
and shipped on the Erie to Buffalo.
The time of the crash was figured at about 5 o'clock Saturday evening by
people living in the neighborhood hearing the crash at that time, and also
by the clock on the plane stopping at the time of the crash. The airlines
travel on standard time. ..."
June 14, 1934
Sullivan County Record
***
"Lee Lord of Rock Hill, who with Ted Hallock of
Washingtonville, first sighted the cracked-up plane, telling in brief what
happened on the trip, said; "We were both at the controls and were about
2,000 feet up when we first discovered the orange and red colored fabric
fluttering in the air. We dropped down and felt sure that we
had discovered the wrecked plane. We flew over the spot several times and at
one time were only about 200 feet above it. We watched carefully for signs
of life, but everything seemed quiet. We had planned on one of us jumping
out with a parachute if there was a sign of life, for we felt that we gould
give aid. Everything seemed dead and after looking the situation over we
started back to get help."
"Government officials are investigating the theory that the secret chemicals
carried by Bader may have had some effect on the pilot and passengers before
the crash, but that theory seems remote, as the chemicals were found
undisturbed.
June 14, 1934
Sullivan County Record
***
"The excitement attending the finding of the crashed and burned passenger
and mail plane with its seven occupants at Mongaup Pond, near DeBruce, last
week has died down, Sullivan County has settled back to its normal
condition, and the tragedy will soon be forgotten as just another happening
of this fast-moving world.
"The ballyhoo attempt to make a sensation out of the chemicals found in the
plane wreck has fizzled out; it proved to be just another publicity stunt,
with no foundation in fact. The six bottles of crystals found in the bag of
one of the plane's passengers, William B. Bader, a chemical engineer, were
turned over to the U.S. Navy officials of Brooklyn, who reported that these
and the exploited "secret documents" were of no interest to the government.
"That it has less than nothing to do with establishing the cause of the
crash is now perfectly apparent. The Navy Department finds the much
publicized chemicals to be ammonia picrate, and it hadn't exploded. The
mysterious character of the papers turns out to be a myth. They contained no
navy secrets, and both papers and chemicals have been ordered returned to
Mr. Bader's employers.
District Attorney Willaim Deckelman sensibly refused to get excited about
the discoveries and quickly dropped the investigation of the accident as
soon as he found that the plane landed in Ulster County, three-fourths of a
mile from the Sullivan County line. The district attorney of Ulster County
says if the relatives of the victims want an inquest they can have it;
otherwise there will be none. ..."
June 21, 1934
Sullivan County Record
***
"Now, it can be hoped, there will be a genuine investigation of the crash
unclouded by picturesque and irrelevant scene shifting. What caused the
crash? That is the only question that matters, and we submit the very least
the state or the federal government can do out of respect to the memory of
the dead, and for the protection of the living, is to get the answer.
"Enough has been rumored to suggest some other questions which may have a
bearing on the cause of this tragedy. For instance;
"What was the weather conditions over the Hudson River valley when the plane
took off at Newark?
"Are pilots given authority by their employers to ground their ships if
flying conditions, in their judgement, are unfavorable?
"Cases are known in which one plane remained grounded, while the plane of a
rival company took off. If flying conditions are unfavorable for one plane,
why are't they equally dangerous to another plane bound for the same
destination?
"Is uncontrolled rivalry of competing companies being allowed to jeopardize
the lives of passengers?
"The Department of Commerce maintains a corps of inspectors who are supposed
to see that transport planes are operated safely, so far as humanely
possible. How much authority have these inspectors? Are they appointed on a
political basis or are they under civil service? What steps are taken to
protect them from outside influences?
"The time has come for a thorough checkup of the air passenger business, and
Mongaup Mountain is an excellent place to begin. ..."
June 21, 1934
Sullivan County Record
***
"The plane wreck was a feast for souvenir hunters. Nearly every shred of the
orange and silver fabric left by the fire has been caried away, besides a
large part of the metal framework of the plane. The ashes were even sifted
in search of coins, pocketknives, buttons and other things about the seven
victims. Even the heavy wheels of the plane were rolled away. Everything
that could be removed without a truck was taken by the souvenir hunters.
"The tragedy again proves that while the air has been conquered, storms and
fog still remain the undefeated enemy of aviation and cannot be safely
penetrated."
June 21, 1934
Sullivan County Record
***
"Eugene Mears and Gerald Simpson of Livingston Manor were sentenced on
Monday in Ulster County to six months in jail for theft of money from the
site of the American Airlines plane crash on Last Chance Mountain, near
Mongaup Pond, after discovery of the plane on June 11th.
"Mears was one of the first two persons to reach the wreckage. He and Mrs.
Thelma Rose, also of Livingston Manor, reached the wreck about 3:30 p.m.
June 11th, a short time before state police and a party of one hundred
searchers arrived. They were hailed as the first to reach the scene on the
mountain after the wreck had been sighted from the air by Ted Hollock,
Washingtonville pilot.
"The money, said to have been in possession of William Cass of Buffalo, one
of the seven victims of the wreck, was held Monday by Sergeant John A.
Hopkins of Ellenville, who worked with Sergeant Thomas J. Mangan of Liberty
on the case. The bills were badly charred along the edges.
"Both men pleaded guilty Monday before Magistrate Fred Shaver at Turnwood.
They declared they found the money near the Cass body. They were taken into
custody and questioned by Sergeant Mangan about two weeks ago as the result
of rumors of burned money in their possession. Mears is an automobile
mechanic, and Simpson a laborer. Both are married and have families."
July 19, 1934
Sullivan County Record
Fred Fries