{"id":800,"date":"1940-08-31T04:08:03","date_gmt":"1940-08-31T04:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/?p=800"},"modified":"2016-11-08T23:51:45","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T23:51:45","slug":"25-dead-in-crash-of-air-transport-lundeen-is-killed-new-york-times-1940","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/25-dead-in-crash-of-air-transport-lundeen-is-killed-new-york-times-1940\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Dead in Crash of Air Transport; Lundeen Is Killed – New York Times (1940)"},"content":{"rendered":"

25 Dead in Crash of Air Transport; Lundeen Is Killed<\/h1>\n

In Virginia Storm<\/h2>\n

Crash Near Mountain in Fog and Rain Startles Village Dwellers<\/h3>\n

By Telephone to THE NEW YORK TIMES<\/h4>\n

LOVETTSVILLE, Va., Aug. 31, 1940 –<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Senator Ernest Lundeen of Minnesota,\u00a0twenty other passengers and\u00a0four members of the crew of a\u00a0Pennsylvania Central Airlines\u00a0transport plane were killed instantly\u00a0this afternoon when the plane\u00a0crashed in an open field a mile and\u00a0a half outside this village. Apparently\u00a0the crash came about 3:40\u00a0P. M.<\/p>\n

The scene of the tragedy was a\u00a0half-mile from Short Hill Mountain,\u00a0one of the foothills of the Blue\u00a0Ridge range, and a mile and a half\u00a0from Route 234, eighteen miles from\u00a0Leesburg and about thirty-six miles\u00a0west of Washington, in Loudoun\u00a0County, northernmost part of the\u00a0State.<\/p>\n

What caused the crash was not\u00a0immediately determined. The plane\u00a0was proceeding in the midst of a\u00a0terrific thunderstorm, with the rain\u00a0falling heavily and a thick fog obscuring\u00a0visibility. It had left Washington\u00a0at 3:18 P. M., the take-off\u00a0being delayed on account of the\u00a0weather for twenty-six minutes. It\u00a0was scheduled to arrive in Pittsburgh\u00a0at 4 o’clock, but was late on\u00a0its course.<\/p>\n

Villagers Heard Motor Roar<\/em><\/p>\n

As the transport, a Douglas DC-3,\u00a0passed over this village the roar of\u00a0its twin motors are heard distinctly\u00a0above the rumble of the storm. \u00a0Then a crash was heard. Residents\u00a0ran out into the storm and searched,\u00a0finding the wreck in the field near\u00a0the mountain. \u00a0The searchers found the plane\u00a0completely wrecked, the debris of\u00a0the large transport scattered about\u00a0the field, the wings broken from the\u00a0fuselage and the motors torn from\u00a0their housing. \u00a0Scattered about the\u00a0debris were the bodies of the passengers\u00a0and crew, mangled beyond\u00a0immediate identification. \u00a0The\u00a0victims had been thrown out by\u00a0the impact and the bodies were\u00a0spread over an area of several hundred\u00a0yards on the soggy field. \u00a0So\u00a0scattered were the people and the\u00a0material that the searchers thought\u00a0at first that the plane had been\u00a0blasted apart by a terrific explosion.<\/p>\n

But there apparently had been no\u00a0explosion, and in the instant before\u00a0the transport hit the earth in\u00a0the crash that was heard for several\u00a0miles, the pilot, Captain Lowell\u00a0Scroggins, or the co-pilot, J. P.\u00a0Moore \u2014 whoever was at the controls\u00a0at the time \u2014 was quick enough to\u00a0throw his ignition switch and cut\u00a0the motor to prevent a fire. \u00a0In the circumstances it was a futile\u00a0gesture, for death came instantaneously\u00a0to all on board, but\u00a0in a lesser impact it might have\u00a0saved lives.<\/p>\n

Local Residents Find Aid Futile<\/em><\/p>\n

There was evidence of only one\u00a0small blaze, in a tire torn from the\u00a0undercarriage, apparently caused\u00a0by the friction of the impact, and\u00a0the rain extinguished it so quickly\u00a0that the rubber was only smoldering\u00a0a little when the searchers arrived. \u00a0Although the victims were spared\u00a0an end by fire, they were so\u00a0crushed that the first searchers\u00a0could not determine the number of\u00a0dead and it had to be ascertained\u00a0from the airline’s records. \u00a0Finding\u00a0the passengers and crew beyond\u00a0aid, the local residents first at the\u00a0scene ran back to telephones and\u00a0summoned the police. \u00a0Constables sped to the scene over\u00a0treacherous country roads from an\u00a0area twenty-five miles distant,\u00a0and State troopers were rushed\u00a0from their barracks at Leesburg,\u00a0eighteen\u00a0miles away, and from\u00a0Frederick, Md., more than twenty\u00a0miles away. \u00a0Ambulances from Leesburg Hospital\u00a0and Winchester Hospital, the\u00a0latter institution being twenty miles\u00a0away, reached the vicinity only\u00a0with difficulty, for creeks and\u00a0brooks were rising and the Potomac\u00a0River, running through the area,\u00a0was overflowing its banks, closing\u00a0several of the roads and making\u00a0passage through others treacherous\u00a0because of washouts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By telephone to the New York Times, August 31, 1940.<\/em><\/p>\n

Many thanks to Greg Eicrhelberger at http:\/\/www3.gendisasters.com\/virginia\/22819\/25-dead-in-crash-air-transport-lundeen-killed<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

25 Dead in Crash of Air Transport; Lundeen Is Killed In Virginia Storm Crash Near Mountain in Fog and Rain Startles Village Dwellers By Telephone to THE NEW YORK TIMES…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":968,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions\/968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}