Atlanta, GA Plane Crashes into Back Yard, Nov 1956

Sailor Survives 2nd Plane Crash

Richard Eland, 18, Aboard Craft Plunging Near Atlanta, Ga., Home

A Bridgeport sailor escaped serious injury yesterday in his second plane crash since he entered the service in 1955.

Richard T. Eland, 18, of 86 Frank Street, was one of six servicemen who received minor injuries when their plane crashed into the backyard of an Atlanta, Ga., house during a rainstorm.

He boarded the twin-engine Navy training plane yesterday morning with the intention of flying to Philadelphia and then going on to visit friends in Syracuse.

Several months ago while at Key West Naval Air Station, he was a member of a crew of a jet plane which crashed while undertaking an emergency landing. At that time he received injuries to his arms.

Yesterday, he received scratches on his ankle, burns from the shoulder straps of his parachute and “bump on his head.”

All six aboard the plane were taken to Grady Hospital in Atlanta.

The crackup occurred about 5:57 a.m., apparently without warning, as the trainer headed into the Atlanta Naval Air station for a fueling stop.

Medical personnel said Eland was declared fit for duty after his hospital examination. He is scheduled to the flown back to his home base in Florida tomorrow.

The teenager enlisted in the Navy after leaving Bullard-Havens technical school to become an aviation mechanic.

The Bridgeport Post, Bridgeport, CT 18 Nov 1956
__________________

Transcribed by June. Thanks June!