Waynesboro, VA Airliner Crashes In Blue Ridge Mountains, Oct 1959

MAY BE SOME SURVIVORS.

WRECKAGE OF LOST DC3 SAID LOCATED.

Buttetin
Charlottesville, Va. (AP) -- Unofficial reports said Saturday night the wreckage of a Piedmont Airlines DC3, missing for a day with 27 persons aboard was located in the Blue Ridge Mountains about 45 miles southwest of here.
BERNARD R. HUFFMAN, chief of police at Buena Vista, said he understood there may be survivors.

Charlottesville, Va. (AP) -- Air and ground searchers failed to find any trace Saturday of a missing airliner carrying 27 persons. The Piedmont Airlines plane is presumed to have crashed just minutes before a scheduled landing here Friday night.
Searchers on foot and in vehicles crisscrossed the rolling countryside in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, checking out numerous unconfirmed reports of a low-flying plane and explosions.
Helicopters and planes, held on the ground most of the morning by rain and a ceiling so low it shrouded the surrounding mountain peaks, dipped among the crests and poked into the heavily forrested Shenandoah National Park. Ground searchers, many carrying two-way radios, traveled across the fields and estates dotting the prosperous Albermarle County countryside.
All reported the same thing: No sign of the plane.
As searchers plodded through the mud and dripping undergrowth during the night and early morning, hope had been held that a survivor might be found. But by mid-afternoon, nearly 18 hours after the pilot received his landing instructions at 8:24 p.m., it became apparent that Piedmont had suffered the first serious crash in its 11-year history as a commercial airline.
Among the passengers aboard were WARREN H. TOOLE, 60, of Tampa, Fla., a member of the Florida Racing Commission; KENNETH FLEMING, a New York textile executive, and JAMES S. HELMS, 32, of Charlottesville, director of the Bureau of School and Community Drama at the University of Virginia's Division of Extension and General Studies.
A final report from the DC3 carrying 24 passengers and a crew of 3 came in a request from the pilot, Capt. GEORGE LAVRINC, for landing instructions at the Charlottesville Airport seven miles northwest of the city.
That was the last anyone heard from the aircraft.
There was no rain falling at the time, and aircraft had a 1,500-foot ceiling and 10 miles visibility. A drizzling rain began falling later.
Authorities said the plane must have crashed soon after its last report. It had sufficient fuel to last until 11 p.m.

PASSENGER LIST.
Winston-Salem, N. C. (AP) -- Piedmont Airlines headquarters Saturday released this list of passengers aboard the DC3 missing in the Charlottesville, Va., area:
KENNETH FLEMING, 106 West 56th St., Brooklyn, N. Y., a textile executive and a University of Maine graduate.
J. S. CARTER, in his 50s, superintendent of the American Syanamid plant at Piney River, Va., who was to have deplaned at Charlottesville.
JAMES S. HELMS, 32, of Charlottesville, director of the bureau of school and community drama of the University of Virginia's division of extension and general studies.
FRANK J. NARDI, 1610 Damar St., Charlottesville.
WESLEY R. ELY, SHERMAN BRISTOW and ALEC N. THOMSON, JR., all employes of the E. I. duPont de Nemours & Co., plant at Waynesboro, Va.
DAVID W. FINDLAY, JR., 39, merchandising and sales promotion manager for station WDBJ-TV, Roanoke, Va.
L. WILLIAM PEAKE, 33, Roanoke, Va., an employe of the Gillette Co.
E. W. McGAHEY, JR., a native of Radford, Va., now living at 131 Wallworth St., Haddonfield, N. J., who was en route to Radford to attend his grandmother's funeral.
WARREN H. TOOLE, 60, Tampa, Fla., realtor and member of the Florida Racing Commission; he was the developer of two of Tampa's largest shopping centers.
WALTER C. VAUGHN, 1546 Wentworth St., Chicago, Ill., en route to Roanoke to visit a brother.
ROBERT M. BROWN, Timberlake, Va., WILLIAM G. FINDLEY, T. H. FOX III and NYLE A DISCHEL, all of Lynchburg, Va., and all employed as engineers at the Babcock & Wilcox nuclear reactor plant at Lynchburg. DISCHEL also had an address: 1022 S. Evergreen, Kankakee, Ill.
MR. and MRS. LAWRENCE B. WHITEHOUSE of 101 Briarwood, Lynchburg, Va.; WHITEHOUSE, about 75 was one of the founders and a former executive of Morton Manufacturing Co., makers of chapstick.
MR. and MRS. M. J. SILVERMAN, New York City.
W. M. McQUEEN, 9 Lawrence Circle, Middletown, N. J.
L. O. SHEFFIELD, 188th St., Fresh Meadows, N. Y.
PHILLIP BRADLEY, 33, of Clifton Forge, Va., a district representative of the International Assn. of Machinists (AFL-CIO).
FRED ABLES, 26-A Elmwood Ct., E. Paterson, N. J.

Post-Herald and Register Beckley West Virginia 1959-11-01

Transcribers Note: There was one survivor in this plane accident. PHILLIP BRADLEY, 33, was found conscious in his seat thrown clear from the main wreckage. He was taken to a Charlottsville Hospital and listed in good condition with a dislocated hip, cuts and bruises. He survived almost 24 hours before help arrived.

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