56 DIE AS AIRLINER CRASHES, BURNS NEAR JERSEY THRONGS.

PASSENGERS ALL KILLED IN DISASTER.

Further Tragedy Averted as Heroic Pilot Plunges Craft Into River Near City; Bluiding Blazes, Workman Hurt.

Elizabeth, N. J., Dec. 16 -- (INS) -- A non-scheduled Florida-bound airliner crashed in flames in the heart of industrial Elizabeth seven minutes after its takeoff today, killing all 56 persons on board.
Only the heroic and skillful maneuvering of the pilot, identified as a Capt. LYONS of Miami, prevented the death toll from mounting even higher.
With a motor and one wing blazing, he brought the plane down into the one clear spot of an area surrounded by crowded streets, apartment buildings, and a railroad depot. It was the sixth worst air crash in history.
Engine Flamed.
The plane, owned by the Miami Airlines, an unscheduled line, carried 52 passengers, including two infants and two other children, and a crew of four. It was making a regular Sunday run from Newark to Tampa.
Eyewitnesses said one of the C-46's two engines burst into flames minutes after the takeoff. The pilot immediately began to circle, as though to head back to the airport.
The flames spread to one wing, however, and the pilot then headed for the clear area. The plane was blazing and its altitude was only a few hundred feet when it passed over the Elizabeth Railroad Depot.
It cleared the depot, swooped over an empty area adjoining it, and then spanned the Elizabeth River, which is only 20 feet wide and waist-deep at that point.
The nose of the plane rammed into the one-story brick plant of the Elizabeth Water Co., on the opposite bank of the river, and the tail broke off on the other bank. The midsection wreckage was scattered over 150 yards, much of it in the river.
The water plant was set afire by the crash. Hours later, firemen working in the freezing weather recovered the bodies of the heroic pilot and his co-pilot from beneath the rubble of brick and metal.
Plane 'Fell Like Jet'
Elizabeth Police Inspector EDWARD FLAHERTY said:
"The pilot certainly tried to save as many lives as possible in crashing. He circled the plane as long as he could with the wing and right engine on fire, and landed in the only small, open, uninhabited place in the crowded district."
One witness told reporters that the plane fell "like a jet," taking with it telephone and light wires as it roared narrowly over the roofs of business structures. In its flight, it narrowly missed the post office and the Elks Club.
At Newark Airport, a man who gave his name at GEORGE COLLINS said he had just put his mother, his sister and the latter's two young sons aboard the plane. Then he watched in horror as "the right engine began smoking badly on the takeoff."
It required the entire length of the field before it gained 50 feet of altitude, he told newsmen, and two fire engines trailed it as it struggled to rise.
A few minutes later, the fire company and emergency apparatus of Union City sighted the plane, its engine afire, in the air and began following it on the ground. The Union City trucks were among the first on the scene when the aircraft fell to earth.
Family Wiped Out.
Three hundred police, joined by all available fire equipment and ambulances rushed to the scene. Red Cross and other disaster units followed. Three priests waded into the river, trying to administer last rites to victims trapped in the flaming wreckage.
Most of the passengers on the plane, owned by Miami Airlines of Miami, were said to be Portuguese and were wearing work clothes. It was reported that one complete family of four was wiped out.
The first Elizabeth police reaching the scene radioed back an urgent plea for more baskets in which to place bodies. At the Alfred C. Haines Funeral Home, where a temporary morgue was set up, attendants said bodies were being brought in "right and left." An additional morgue was set up in the funeral home's garage. By evening, 30 bodies had been recovered.
Firemen said they were "almost shoveling the bodies out. The blackened bodies were placed in blankets and relayed to shore on planks hurried from an adjoining junk yard.
When the plane crashed to earth, flaming debris and gasoline showered over a wide area and two other houses caught fire. Fire equipment and police came from Roselle, Newark, Union, and from the port authority building at Newark airport.
Watchman Injured.
FRANK HANNON, 65, watchman at the waterworks, suffered shock, cuts and a broken ankle when the roof of the plant fell in on him after the plane plunged into the side of the structure. HANNON was sitting at his desk when the plane struck.
When darkness set in some two hours after the plane crashed at 3:09 p.m., floodlights were set up along the banks of the river to aid firemen in their work.
The Aircoach Transport Assoc. said it was the first fatal accident of a non-scheduled flight in 26 months.
Police Captain NICHOLAS MIGLIORIE and Patrolman NICHOLAS BILSKY said the plane was a "ball of fire" moments before it plunged earthward.
An engineer for a Newark radio station, who observed the crash from a tower, said the right engine of the ill-fated craft was smoking as the plane roared overhead and then he noticed it break into flames. He added:
"A second or two later, the landing wheel came down, and the plane turned to the left, apparently attempting to make the turn to get back to the airport."
"All of a sudden, the same engine that was on fire burst into a very large flame and the plane keeled over and plunged to the ground. After that, there was just a column of smoke."
The site of the crash was only one short block from the Broad St. station of the New Jersey Central Railroad depot in Elizabeth which police said was "fairly well crowded." They said that if the burning airliner had struck the depot the death list might have mounted into the hundreds.
The flight control tower at Newark Airport reported that the pilot had radioed that he was returning to the airfield when contact was lost.
All aboard the giant ship were hopelessly trapped as the flames mushroomed throughout the craft in its plunge to earth.
Firemen were unable to reach the plane for several minutes because of the intense heat radiated by the burning craft.
Officials said that if the tragedy had occurred on any other day but Sunday the death toll might have been staggering.

Charleston Gazette West Virginia 1951-12-17

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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!