Talk:1960 New York air disaster

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I've been told (don't remember by whom) that the pilot of the United Airlines flight was trying to crash-land in Prospect Park, but was unsuccessful. On the face of it, this makes sense: the park is a few blocks farther along the path the plane would be taking from Staten Island.  — Anna Kucsma 20:55, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I Googled the air crash and found one source (which, I admit, I had never heard of) which says the plane that crashed in Park Slope was indeed trying to make an emergencey landing, but at LaGuardia Airport, not Prospect Park. But Park Slope Reader (a little mare than halfway down, in the "Pillar of Fire" section) states that both potential landing-attempt sites were speculated about as such by witnesses. Neither About.com nor Infoplease said anything either way.  — Anna Kucsma 16:12, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Both references I have state that the aircraft was far, far too badly damaged for the pilots to possibly have any control of the aircraft. I think laypersons often think that aircraft in distress are "trying to make an emergency landing" when quite often they're just out of control - I remember with the Greek aircraft disaster (Helios Airlines? I'm not sure off the top of my head) a few years ago some bystanders said, "He's trying to get to a safe place to ditch" but when the report came out it was clear the aircraft had been uncontrollable and the pilots were likely unconscious. Maybe it's just hope that pilots are trying to avoid crashing into ground targets. --Charlene.fic 18:25, 17 October 2006 (UTC)