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SeafordAlumni.com :: Seaford Living - Memories/Stories :: Seaford Living :: Plane Crash in Wantagh
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AuthorTopic: Plane Crash in Wantagh (Read 2,674 times)
Warren Davies
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Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Thread Started on Oct 10, 2003, 2:21pm »		[Quote]
It was one of those moments so traumatic in the life of a 7-year old that it is indelibly etched in my memory. It was as if it happened yesterday. In 1954 a jet fighter out of either Republic or Grumman crashed right into the middle of Denver Rd.[ right around the corner from Roxbury ]. I saw it fly right over my back yard, disappear over the trees on Willoughby Ave, and then saw the flames rise. Small pieces of the plane landed in my yard and in the yard that the Trubia's would move into later. The pilot wanted to land in a field at the Beech Street School. In a Newsday article the next day, they qouted the pilots last words, "can't land at school, full of kids, gonna try to make it to the water...". He saved a lot of lives that day. How many of you saw or heard it too? Reply here or at Warren@SaturnAtl.com
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eyewitness
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #1 on Oct 13, 2003, 12:39pm »		[Quote]
Went to the crash site with my parents. Had to sneak through back yards to see the actual point of impact. Huge hole in the street. I think they found the pilot in a tree.
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Jim Norton Wantagh 63
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #2 on Oct 14, 2003, 3:28pm »		[Quote]
The fighter jet crashed in the middle of Denver Rd, 2 blks away from Amherst Dr, where I lived. I remember standing in my driveway with Pete Gilfilon eating a peanut butter sandwich for lunch and seeing this jet streaking across the sky in front of us. It was on fire at the time and the pilot flew it into the middle of the street. It was in '54.
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JannJerry
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #3 on Oct 18, 2003, 4:25pm »		[Quote]
I was four and remember being in a stroller when my dad took us there. I just remember it as a big fire. A few years later I put two and two together and realized that it was the plane crash.
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Marilyn61
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #4 on Oct 24, 2003, 3:39pm »		[Quote]
I was in the front seat of my mother's car going up Seaford Avenue towards Sunrise Highway. Right after we passed Willoughby Ave. we saw the plane diving down. It looked like it was going to crash into the train station. There was a HUGE fireball that came up. I don't know if it was my imagination , or what, But I swear that I felt the heat on my arm out the window of the car.
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ErikaHanloser1965Wantagh
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #5 on Nov 7, 2003, 11:28am »		[Quote]
My mother was hanging curtains in the front window and saw the whole thing. Six people, including the pilot, were killed. My friend's mom had just taken her two toddlers out of their cribs and had gone elsewhere in the house. Within moments that bedroom, with its 2 empty cribs, was where the engine landed. There were parts all over the neighborhood.
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ErikaHanloser 1958Wantagh
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #6 on Nov 7, 2003, 11:31am »		[Quote]
I graduated from Wantagh in 1958. The plane crashed in 1954.
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Walter Mitchell 1961 Wantagh
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #7 on Nov 7, 2003, 3:17pm »		[Quote]
We were playing kickball in the middle of Larch Street just north of Merrick Road when that plane went down.. Mike Hamill, the Dillons, Sue Wassing, Jud Box ( we actually had a Box that DIDN'T start with a "T" ) and others. We were all playing at the time. We thought it was a bomb. Remember, in 1954 we were just 9 years out of WWII. It was a scary moment.
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Warren111qwert
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Joined: Oct 2003
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Location: St. Albans
Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #8 on Nov 11, 2003, 6:49pm »		[Quote]
The crash happened on August 3, 1954. An Air Force Republic F-84 "Thunderjet" went down smack in the middle of Denver Road. Two died - the pilot, instantly, and another man on the ground a few days later. According to Newsday, 5 others were injured. There was talk of putting a plaque up but it never happened. The pilot could have bailed out, but didn't. His heroism saved many lives that day.
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Glenn Strachan1975WantaghHS
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #9 on Nov 12, 2003, 3:26pm »		[Quote]
I asked my father if he remembered the airplane crash in Wantagh. He most certainly did. Turns out that my brother was riding his bike at the time at almost dead center where the plane crashed. Apparently my mother went nuts worrying that he had been hurt when the plane crashed. I queried my brother as well and he remembers, as did my father, body parts and wreckage strewn around the crash site. What an amazing memory.....
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Kathy Gustafson
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #10 on Nov 14, 2003, 2:07pm »		[Quote]
We felt the ground vibrate over on Mermaid Avenue in Wantagh.
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Anthony Monteleone
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #11 on Dec 2, 2003, 6:07pm »		[Quote]
I was in the 7th or 8th grade in Wantagh when that F-86 went down in Wantagh. The pilot, whose name I believe was William Wieland, was flying from Bangor, Maine. Initially, when he developed an engine problem, he was heading for water but could not make it. Then he spotted the field at the Beech Street School but kids were on the playground. He went down in a ball of fire. A nieghbor who was on his front lawn at the time died. I remember that the hole in the ground that his plane made had the outline of his plane.
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CarmineP
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #12 on Feb 19, 2004, 4:04pm »		[Quote]
I was 7 years old and remember it like it was yesterday, almost 50 years later. Strange - the things that stick in your memory. I can't remember where I put my reading glasses just an hour ago.
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joyc pirs
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #13 on Jun 11, 2005, 5:11pm »		[Quote]
Jim Norton....Hi my name is joyce class of SHS'76...I live on Amherst Drive now...what house did you live in. Amazing to read the history.
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Bruce Weiland
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Re: Plane Crash in Wantagh
« Reply #14 on Jul 22, 2011, 9:45pm »		[Quote]
My father, Cpt William Hubbard Weiland was the pilot that lost his life August 3, 1954. I would like to hear from anyone familliar with the incident. I plan to visit the crash site for the first time late this summer.

BruWeiland@aol.com
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