This weekend, the small town of Perkinsville, Vermont, is planning to mark the 60th anniversary of Vermont's worst aviation disaster.
Compared to most airplane crashes these days, the deathtoll in the crash of the army B-29 bomber was small.
But the town has never forgotten that night.
The Vermont Standard's Kevin Forrest reports.
Ambient intro – Joanna Titcomb points out the impact site from her home
Joanna Titcomb gestures toward the steep cliffs of Hawks Mountain.
They tower over her rambling farmhouse in the village of Perkinsville, Vt.
Sixty years ago this weekend Titcomb and her husband, Andrew, had just returned from a birthday party.
As they prepared for bed shortly after midnight, an ungodly roar overhead shook the house and rattled windows.
Joanna Titcomb - It went over the house, and then suddenly—silence. So we ran and looked out the window and there was that glowing mountain, and we knew it had hit.
A massive B-29, the kind of plane that dropped tons of bombs on Japan during World War II, had slammed into Hawks Mountain.
Andrew Titcomb and two friends were among the first to scale the rugged 2,000-foot mountain to the site. He later told his wife what they saw.
Joanna Titcomb - And as they got up a little ways, they saw flares going off. So they thought there were survivors. So they rushed on. And when they got there, there were no survivors.
Another eyewitness, Don Shattuck was twenty one years old that year.
He and some friends also scrambled up the steep mountainside guided by the glow of the flames.
What they found remains burned in his memory.
Don Shattuck - Course there was a lot of debris. The top of the plane had been ripped open. The pilot and copilot were sitting in their seats and the fire was all around them.
The reason for the crash that night is still somewhat of a mystery.
What is known is that Robert Fessler, a seasoned pilot, was on a navigational training flight from Tucson, Arizona to Andrews Army Air Base near Washington, DC.
Fessler later changed plans due to bad weather.
The giant four-engined aircraft with its 12 crew members refueled at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania then headed for Bedford, Massachusetts.
But Veteran navigator Newt Tindall got off the plane in Pittsburgh and attended a weather briefing.
And for some reason, as the bomber roared northeastward through stormy, overcast skies, Tindall’s replacement relied on dead reckoning rather than the plane’s sophisticated radio compass to chart the route.
That choice still puzzles aviation historians like Brian Lindner.
Brian Lindner - One of the big mysteries of this crash is why were they ordered not to use the radio compass and one has to assume it was because it was a training mission and they needed the practice to fly dead reckoning.
Flying through the clouds, the big plane drifted off course.
The B-29’s crew must have suspected they were lost, yet an offer of help from Grenier Army Air Base in Manchester, NH was rejected.
Historian Lindner says the pilot apparently decided to orient the aircraft visually.
Brian Lindner - And I think in desperation they just came down through the clouds thinking they were someplace over the flatlands of Bedford, Mass., when in fact they were up over the mountains of Vermont.
Within hours of the crash, investigators from Grenier Army Air Base in Manchester had secured the scene and started their investigation.
They found no mechanical malfunctions.
They eventually ruled that in trying to orient the plane, the pilot simply flew too low.
For a few days, Perkinsville was mobbed by reporters, military investigators, red cross workers and many curious onlookers.
Aviation historian Lindner said such a disaster is bound to shake a village to its very roots.
Brian Lindner - B-29’s crashing anywhere, given the size of the plane, is noteworthy. But to happen in a tiny little town in Vermont—it’s incredible that it happened here.
So strong was the crash’s impact is that even 60 years later, people are still marking the tragedy.
This weekend’s events include speakers, a display of memorabilia, a dinner, and hikes to the crash site, where parts of the bomber remain.
Filmmaker Marita Johnson also plans to debut a new documentary on the crash.
Relatives of survivors and the lucky navigator Newt Tindall are also expected to attend.
For NHPR news, this is Kevin Forrest
