Yarmouth Port, MA Airliner Crash, June 1979

NO ONE KNEW CRASH COMING.

Yarmouth Port, Mass. (UPI) -- Passengers aboard an Air New England commuter plane had
"no indication we were going to crash" before the twin-engine plane slammed into jungle-like woods on Cape Cod Sunday night.
Veteran pilot, airline co-founder and Vice President GEORGE PARMENTER, 60, of Centerville, was killed when the plane -- flight 240 from LaGuardia Airport in New York -- crashed in a thick fog into a Boy Scout campground.
Nine other people, including the co-pilot, were injured -- two critically. No one on the ground was injured. The two most seriously injured passengers were two sisters from Birmingham, Mich. They were identified as KATHERINE HANAFEE, 12, and KIM HANAFEE, 10 -- both in critical condition at Cape Cod Hospital. A third sister, WENDY, 16, was reported in stable condition.
"I thought I knew where we were because we were circling," passenger SUZANNE MOURAD, 19, of Dennis, Mass., said in a copyright interview with the Cape Cod Times. She struggled a mile through the thick brush to flag down a motorist for help and later led rescuers to the crash site.
"Then it just happened. None of us were prepared for it. It was a mess. People had broken shoulders, broken feet," said MISS MOURAD, who bumped her head in the crash and was treated and released at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis. "Two people up front were crushed against each other. There was no indication we were going to crash."
The plane went down more than a mile from the Barnstable Municipal Airport.
The co-pilot, identified by the airline as RICHARD D. ROBERTI, suffered a broken leg and fractured wrists, the hospital said.

The Post Standard Syracuse New York 1979-06-19
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!