C-46 Crash Survivors Tell Tale of Tragedy

SYRACUSE HERALD-JOURNAL, TUESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1952

LITTLE VALLEY (AP) The 14 survivors of the crash of a nonscheduled C-46 airliner have reached safety and rescue workers have brought out the bodies of 23 of the 26 victims.

The wreckage was found yesterday on a wooded ridge of the Allegheny Mountain foothills in the most remote section of South-western New York. 

The twin-engined plane crashed about 10:25 P.M. (E.S.T.)  Saturday on the one-hour jump from Pittsburgh to Buffalo.  At 2:45 P.M. yesterday a passenger, George Albert, 30, of Miami, Fla., struggled two and a half miles through heavy snow to the nearest road and summoned help.

"I had no idea where we were," said Albert, whose mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Albert, 47, was killed.  "I thought it was New York State, but you couldn't be sure.  The pilots were dead.  They were the only ones who knew.

"So I took off.  Sure, I'm glad I made it.  I guess I'm one of the lucky ones."

Pearl Moon, 24, of Miami, a stewardess for Continental Charters, Inc., operators of the plane, said the right engine stuttered just before the crash. 

"We started to lose altitude, and as the plane hit the tree tops I fought to hand on to my seat," she said.  "There was no panic and no screaming as we descended.  I was knocked out."

Miss Moon said a baby died in her arms Sunday morning as the survivors huddled around a fire back of a shelter they made from a parachute.  The baby was identified tentatively as Judy Frankell, 3.

Mrs. Eva Woodward, 62, of Miami, said she was knocked unconscioous and that when she came to, "there was snow and ice in the plane."  "A couple of men pulled me out," she said.  "I was afraid the plane might go up in a fire, but, thank heavens, it didn't.

The survivors were brought out on litters and on heavy sledges pulled by a tractor.  They were met at the road by ambulances and rushed to district Hospital in Salamanca, about eight miles away.  None was reported in critical condition.

Then began the terrible task of picking up the remains of the victims.  Crews under the direction of Cattaragus County Sheriff Morgan L. Sigel worked half the night at the job.  The bodies were taken to funeral homes in the area, where the long task of identification began.

At least two of the bodies were decapitated.  The lings of others were torn from the bodies.

Three bodies were left pinned in the wreckage.  Workers hoped to extricate them today.  There were 33 passengers, including three children, and seven crew members aboard when the plane left Pittsburgh.  Only surviving members of the crew were Miss Moon, and Delores Beshears, 21, another stewardess of Miami.

The plane was scheduled to fly to Syracuse after stopping at Buffalo, then take off for Miami.

Chairman Donald Nyrop and other officials of the civil Aeronautics Board left Washington by air this morning to make an on the spot investigation of the crash.  A CAB spokesman said Nyrop was particularly concerned because this was the third crash of a C-446 in the last three weeks.  One of the previous crashes, in Elizabeth, N.J., took 56 lives.  The scene of the crash was fairly level.  The plane left a path of fallen trees as it swept into the woods.  Survivors said another 50 feet of altitude would have enabled the pilot to clear the ridge.

Navy Lt. William Bischof, 26 of Johnstown, Pa., said the right wing tip caught a tree, spinning the plane around.  The fuselage was broken in two and Bischof said "the only ones that got out were those in the after part of the ship".

Fourteen personds made their way to the parachute shelter, but two unidentified women died the first night.  The baby died the next day.  Three others could not be moved and finally were taken out of the wreckage by rescue workers.  "We found an old barrel and we used it to start a fire," Albert related.  "We took warm clothes from the luggage.  There were holiday food packages in the luggage, too.

"But nobody was very hungry the first night.  To tell you the truth, I can't remember whether I ate anything at all."

Albert and Bishof made a futile effort to get help Sunday.  They estimated that they walked about a mile from the plane, but finally returned when they were unable to work their way out of the rugged woodland.

Then yesterday morning they could hear a train whistle in the distance.  Albert, who was in the best condition of any of the survivors, set out to reach the railroad tracks.  But he reached the road first.. 

Speaking of the tattered little band of survivors, Albert said: "they had wonderful spirit.  They tried to help each other even when they were in intense pain.  Today I knew I had to make it outside.  I don't know whether some of them could have lasted another night."

As the plane ripped into the trees, he said, "I remember thinging, "Well, my boy, you're going to find out what it's like to die."  The other survivors: Mrs. Mary Messerios, 45, Pittsburgh; Mrs. Marie Norcia, 47, East Liberty, Pa.; Mrs. Anna Piso, 52, Crafton, Pa.; Miss Mary Bittista, 28, Weirton, W. Va.; Joseph Wozniak, 33, Canonsburg; Roger Geyer, 35, Pittsburgh; Thomas Patterson, 21, New Castle, Pa.; Edward Wessel, 19, Pittsburgh.

Crash Pictures from the scene