POST-STANDARD

SYRACUSE, N.Y., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1944

CREW ESCAPES WITH MINOR HURTS IN UTICA ACCIDENT

A C-46 twin-motor army transport plane from Syracuse army airbase crashed and burned near Utica airport at 3:50 p.m. yesterday while attempting a practice takeoff and the crew of four escaped with minor injuries. The Plane had completed one practice takeoff and landing and was rising into the air for another run when it suddenly sideslipped and crashed near the Marcy state hospital, 50 yards off the airfield. fire apparatus from the rome army airfield and nearby communities responded to a call. The plane burned until 7 p.m.

Apparently none of the crew was hospitalized by the accident, Utica airport officials said. Lt. Lorenz of Syracuse army airbase said the plane was from that field. Syracuse army airbase officials leased the Utica airport last July for practice landings and takeoffs for their transport planes. Yesterdays crash was the first accident to occur on the field. Under terms of the lease the army is liable for any damage done to the field and maintains its own medical and crash prevention equipment.

UTICA OBSERVER DISPATCH

UTICA, NY, THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 1944

ARMY PLANE CRASHES IN MARCY FIELD

Military Police today were guarding the wreckage of a twin engine Army transport plane which crashed and burned at 3:30 p.m. yesterday about 1,000 feet east of the Utica Airport. An investigation of the crash, in which only one of the four men in the plane was injured, was expected to get under way today, and arrangements were to be made to salvage parts of the wreckage.

The transport was one of those from the Syracuse Army Air Base which have been engaged for several weeks in practice of short field takeoffs and landings on the local field. The mishap occurred about 1,000 feet north of the state road on the Marcy Hospital grounds and the plane burned for three hours, attracting thousands of spectators, many of them workers on their way to and from Rome.

Cpl. Rex Bergman, Syracuse Army Air Base, was the man injured. He suffered one bruised knee and the other was slightly cut. He also suffered a laceration on his chest. he was given first aid at the scene. The plane, estimated to cost more than $100,000 was damaged to such an extent that only parts can be salvaged, it was reported.

A fire, which started near the motor on the right side shortly after the crash, continued until 6:30 p.m. despite efforts of a crash truck from the Rome Army Air Field, Marcy State Hospital and Whitesboro firemen. The trucks made numerous trips to hydrants, some distance away, to obtain water for the booster pumps, and their gasoline supply was replenished at the airport.

According to an eyewitness, the plane took off from the airport and as it approached the eastern end of the field, appeared to hesitate between landing again or gaining altitude. It continued in the air for a short distance past the end of the field, then struck the ground and rolled until the landing gear struck a ditch. Then the dear was sheared off and the plane continued for s short distance raising a cloud of dust said and breaking the wings.

The occupants of the plane made their escape and shortly afterward the gasoline tank on the left side exploded, followed seconds later by the explosion of the right side tank. The crash truck from the Rome Army Air Field, which is stationed at the Utica Airport when the field is being used for landing and take off practice by the Syracuse planes, became mired a short distance from the crash.

Five civilian guards, returning by auto from work at the Rome Army Air Field, saw the fire and assumed control of traffic until arrival of a detachment of military police from the Rome base. Four other transport planes containing military personnel landed at the airport soon after the mishap. Trucks and other vehicles from the Rome base brought other personnel, including Col. A.W. Martenstein, commandant of the Rome field. The injured man in the wrecked transport, Corporal Bergman, said he was working a crossword puzzle when the plane crashed. "I was working out a crossword puzzle," he said, "and i don't know just what did happen."