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Bristol Bay, AK Plane Crashes On Takeoff, July 1957
Posted February 16th, 2009 by Stu Beitler
HUSBANDS SEE WIVES KILLED IN WRECKAGE.
Anchorage, July 11. (AP) -- Husbands of two Washington state women were in the crowd that witnessed the Bristol Bay plane crash that killed the women and four others yesterday.
HAAKON B. FRIELE, widely known Pacific Northwest cannery operator and chain store executive, and his son, HAROLD B. FRIELE had just bid goodbye to their wives at King Salmon airport after a two-week visit.
Then the twin-engined Lockheed Lodestar plane, owned by a wealthy New York businessman, crashed and burned on takeoff killing all aboard.
Those who died included the plane's owner, V. REDFIELD VOSE, about 60, New York insurance man with real estate and cattle interests in the Virgin Islands.
The others were:
MRS. H. B. FRIELE, about 55, Bellevue, Wash., wife of the widely known Pacific Northwest cannery operator and A. & P. (grocery chain) representative.
MRS. HAROLD B. FRIELE, whose husband is assistant superintendent of the Nakeen, Alaska, cannery.
POLLY EVANS, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Evans of Augusta, Ga.
EDWARD COLIGNY, the pilot, of 120 Clinton St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
RALPH HUTHES, co-pilot, same address.
The CAA said the plane reached an altitude of only about 500 feet when it nosed over, crashed and burned.
VOSE had been on a business trip to Alaska.
MRS. H. B. FRIELE and MRS. HAROLD B. FRIELE, her daughter-in-law, were returning with VOSE to Seattle after visiting their husbands in Alaska, friends in Seattle said.
VOSE owned Antilles Enterprises, a Virgin Island real estate and cattle outfit, and Bluebeard's Castle Hotel and other property at St. John's.
At Washington, D.C., the Civil Aeronautics Board reported two of its investigators flew from Anchorage to King Salmon to probe the accident. The CAB said their findings probably will not be made public for weeks until exhaustive studies are completed.
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Alaska 1957-07-11
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!
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Corrections to the story from 1957
The pilot Ed Coligny lived at 198 Edgewater Avenue, Bayport, New York, not Brooklyn, with his family and was survived by his wife Irene and two children Michael and Jacqueline. Our understanding is that the executive Mr. Voss was in fact the majority stock holder of A&P food chain. Polly was his secretary. The estate, the largest ever settled in NY at that time, left everything to his secretary. He had no living relatives, further as Polly was killed at the same time in the crash everything was left to her brothers.
Ed Coligny learned to fly at the age of 17 in 1925 and recieved his commercial training at Spartan Flight School Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1927. He was a mail and an airline pilot in Alaska late 20s early 30s, flew for Midway Airlines in the 30's and 40s. WWII he joined the Navy as a flight instructor at Pensacola, and mustered out in 1947 at NAS Floyd Benette Field as a full Commander. While in the Navy he spent several tours of duty in Alaska. After the Navy, he then set up the flight department and became the Corporate pilot for Doubleday Book Company which operated out of Roosevelt Field (1947), Long Isand. From there he went to Cities Service as a Corporate Pilot. After that he became the corporate pilot for Mr. Voss. The aircraft they were flying was a Super Beech 18, not a Lodestar and on order was a brand new Gulfstream 1. One of the aircraft flown at Cities Service was a Lodestar, I know I rode in it as a kid.
His son, Mike Coligny (that would be me) ultimately became a pilot as well. Interestingly enough I spent a bit of time in Alaska where I worked with the Medallion Foundation, Coastal Helicopters in Juneuau, ERA in Anchorage and Frontier in Fairbanks. My field, flight simulators.
There is a lot more that could be commented on but I only wanted to correct what I could on the inaccuracies of the original article.