65 cents in nickels and dimes
January 15, 2012 10:48 AM   Subscribe

15 photographs taken at the scene of the 1960 Park Slope, Brooklyn passenger plane collision. These are horrifying, view with caution. Previously. Sorry it had to be from the Daily Mail, folks.
posted by timshel (30 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Funnily enough, my friend Megan and I decided to go to a happy hour on a bar off Cortelyou Road in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn last year. This older man, who was exclusively drinking bottled Bud he poured himself into a fancy glass and only paying with single dollar bills, started chatting up my friend and somehow worked this plane crash into the conversation. I believe he grew up in Park Slope and somehow thought this was an appropriate pick-up line for 20-somethings.
posted by nonmerci at 11:19 AM on January 15, 2012


Yeah, this happened four blocks away from where I live. I'd never seen pictures before, and I don't think I'll ever be able to walk to the 7th Ave stop again without thinking about a flaming TWA plane in the middle of the street.
posted by lunalaguna at 11:28 AM on January 15, 2012


They look like they could have been taken during the Blitz.
posted by crunchland at 11:32 AM on January 15, 2012


Sorry it had to be from the Daily Mail, folks.

It doesn't have to be.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:35 AM on January 15, 2012 [3 favorites]


I don't think I'll ever be able to walk to the 7th Ave stop again without thinking about a flaming TWA plane in the middle of the street.

TWA crashed 10 miles away. The one in the street was United.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 11:48 AM on January 15, 2012


Pillar of Fire Church. Pillar of Fire Church.
posted by katillathehun at 11:52 AM on January 15, 2012 [7 favorites]


my mom was a teenager living in Park Slope when this happened. I just called her, she remembered it very well (her school bus route was changed for weeks due to the wreckage) I'll be sending this link along to her.
posted by supermedusa at 12:00 PM on January 15, 2012


Pillar of Fire Church. Pillar of Fire Church.

That and the picture with the stop sign included.

Apparently were Too Sooning even back in the day.
posted by srboisvert at 12:12 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


My godfather, Johnny Aparasano, died in a building fire caused by the crash.

.
posted by Splunge at 12:19 PM on January 15, 2012 [2 favorites]


It's worth pointing out that this sort of accident is why TCAS was developed. It has undoubtably saved many lives since its implementation.
posted by kiltedtaco at 12:24 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


I used to live like, right where this happened and I'd never heard of this until now. Also, I had to look up Pillar of Fire. Turns out to be a less-than-savory organization.
posted by Navelgazer at 12:34 PM on January 15, 2012


This looks like the building in the background of pictures 7, 10, and 11 of that Mail Online article.
posted by pracowity at 1:08 PM on January 15, 2012


I'm a few blocks away from this. You can still see the places where damage has been repaired on some of the buildings around it.
Here's sort of a view of one. The top of the all-brick building doesn't match the rest of it.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 1:13 PM on January 15, 2012


Sorry it had to be from the Daily Mail, folks.

I don't mind the Daily Mail so much. They manage, on a weekly basis, to grab my attention with some interesting web feature, no matter the fact that I take each one with a block of salt.
posted by sswiller at 1:21 PM on January 15, 2012


srboisvert:Pillar of Fire Church. Pillar of Fire Church.

That and the picture with the stop sign included.


The "no parking" sign jumped out at me too. You know you've lived in NY too long when your first thought is "oooh, that's a ticket!".
posted by dr_dank at 1:24 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


.
Sorry for your troubles, Splunge.
We think these things happen to strangers, but the impact on lives is truly driven home to us when we realize it affects our own community.
posted by BlueHorse at 1:53 PM on January 15, 2012


Is there a novel that makes use of this air disaster? It's ringing a lot of bells but I don't know why.
posted by cell divide at 2:36 PM on January 15, 2012


I used to live on Sterling between Flatbush and Vanderbilt, so this was a block and a half from my apartment. The area looks pretty much the same today (minus wreckage).
posted by snofoam at 2:48 PM on January 15, 2012


Interesting. I know my father grew up on Sterling Place, but he never mentioned this.
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 2:57 PM on January 15, 2012


Amazing photos, thanks for this.

Daily Mail seems to like old timey New York photos like these 70s cops.
posted by Ad hominem at 3:14 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


You know you've lived in NY too long when your first thought is "oooh, that's a ticket!"

You know you're too much of an airplane nut when your first thought is "Oh, that poor, beautiful Super Connie..."
posted by Capt. Renault at 3:47 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


"Is there a novel that makes use of this air disaster? It's ringing a lot of bells but I don't know why."

Mad Men referenced a similar crash in Jamaica Bay a couple of years after this one.
posted by jetsetsc at 6:10 PM on January 15, 2012 [1 favorite]


You know you've lived in NY too long when your first thought is ... You know you're too much of an airplane nut when your first thought is ..." --- 200 houses burned, and 134 people died, and this is what you guys first thought? Yeesh.
posted by crunchland at 6:18 PM on January 15, 2012


wow, those photos are chilling.
posted by sweetkid at 6:46 PM on January 15, 2012


The top of the all-brick building doesn't match the rest of it.

To be sure, that is the normal look of any building which has had its 19th century cornice removed.
/historicpreservationist

the other is a mega-"news" & photos website for the global English language internet audience

Indeed, one could say that these sorts of galleries, in a Big Picture-esque way, are one thing it does fairly well. ALthough they always seem to intersperse the actual text of any story amongst the photos non-chronologically, which drives my non-Time-Lord inner self nuts.
posted by dhartung at 7:24 PM on January 15, 2012


I guess I can talk about it more. When i was a kid, every time the family got together. They talked about the people who "weren't around anymore".

A lot of the time it was people who were criminals. Hey, we were a family that had connections.

But it always got around to who was dead and how they died. I was a kid. But I liked to listen to the old folks talk about the old days. At one point my uncle Frank, who was a pawn shop owner, would break out his clippers and give my grandfather a haircut.

Then he would pull his gun out of the holster and take the bullets out and show them to me. Then he let me pull the trigger.

"Don't pull the trigger too much, you'll break it." he'd say.

Then while I sat on his lap they'd talk about the old stuff again.

And eventually it would be about Johnny and how he burned up in the crash. And how they only found his boots and his belt buckle. Which was how they knew it was him.

And my grandfather would have too much wine. And he'd say how Johnny was a fucking saint. And as a kid I pictured this guy, who I never met, as an angel with wings and a big ass gun.

Because I thought my uncle Frank was a damn saint. So my godfather, who died when I was one year old had to be just the same.
posted by Splunge at 9:04 PM on January 15, 2012 [11 favorites]


Splunge may be the most Brooklyn person on MetaFilter. Everyone else I know who may be more Brooklyn looks at me like am idiot when I talk about when I comment online.
posted by Ad hominem at 1:26 AM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


BTW: My eternal shame is I have a Manhattan address on my birth certificate even though I spent the first 30 years of my life in the streets of Brooklyn.
posted by Ad hominem at 1:29 AM on January 16, 2012


Except maybe Griphus.

Too much vodka, I'm out!
posted by Ad hominem at 1:33 AM on January 16, 2012


disasters bring out the best in people...you see it in these photos, everyone working together.
posted by naplesyellow at 8:55 PM on January 17, 2012


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