Miscellaneous - Sidney Plane Crash, 1946

Two Die as Plane Burns After

Hitting Sidney Home
October 1946

 

Sidney [Delaware Co., NY]:  John P. Arrigoni, of 7 Columbia ave., Binghamton, 22-year-old Sidney reporter for The Binghamton Sun, and Gerald W. Hines, 26, a Scintilla mechanic, died in the wreckage of a Waco two-seated civilian airplane which crashed and burned in the driveway of an East Main street home shortly before noon today.  State Police from Troop "C" Barracks in Sidney, who were unable to determine which of the men was piloting the plane, said the ship appeared to be "buzzing or diving" over Mr. Hines' Sherwood Heights home just before it went out of control and crashed in the yard of a home occupied by the family of Clifford Griswald.  The only available eyewitness to the crash was Robert Harrison, who resides in a trailer near the Griswald home and was standing near the spot where the plane landed.

 

"It came in low over a cemetery across East Main street from the Griswald home and struck a tree about an eighth of a mile from the point where it crashed." Mr. Harrison said.  "It rose into the air after it hit the first tree and rolled as if a wing were damaged before striking two other trees.  It then zoomed over a parked trailer, hit three parked cars, and bounced from the ground to a height of about 25 feet.  It came to rest with its nose nearly touching the Griswald house."  he stated.  "I started toward the plane to help whoever was in it" Mr. Harrison continued, "when it burst into flames."

 

The eyewitness notified the Sidney Fire Department, and minutes later a fire truck arrived at the scene to extinguish the flames which were spreading to the Griswald home.  Bodies of both men were burned beyond recognition and identification was made through the log book at the Sidney Airport, from where the plane took off minutes before the crash.  Officials at the port said both men held pilot's licenses, thus complicating efforts to learn the identity of the man at the controls.  The plane, a Waco U-PF-7, had dual removable controls, and spokesmen were unable to say which of the men had control of the plane when it crashed.  One observer said Mr. Hines was piloting when the plane left the port.  With Stephen Jones, also of Sidney, Mr. Hines purchased the plane from a civilian flying school at Narrowsburg last July.  Mr. Jones said today that the plane was in excellent mechanical condition and he could offer no reasons for the tragic accident.  He said Mr. Hines received his pilot's license only 60 days ago. 

 

Mrs. Griswald was in the kitchen of her home when the plane crashed in the driveway, showering the side of the home with liquid fire and scorching it to a point well above the second floor level.  Airport officials said the men had no special destination when they took off from the field, classifying the trip as a "joy-ride," one official said the plane went to the south end of the landing field while the pilot practiced turns for a few moments and then zoomed off to the north.  The plane had just cleared the Sidney business district when it struck the first tree on Cemetery Hill.  Mr. Harrison said he thought he heard the plane's engine sputter shortly before it started its fatal plunge earthward. 

 

Some time ago Arrigoni told The Sun sports editor he had tried to interest some of his old navy flying mates in the purchase of a plane from the government, in order that they might get in their flying time required of officers in reserve.  "I don't know what has got into them," he said, "They seem to be fed up with it, but I still have a yen to do all the flying I can.  However, I'm in no position to swing a deal for such a plane all by myself."  He wore his navy wings proudly and got by under a handicap he concealed cleverly.  He had a bad wrist, suffered earlier in an athletic contest, but it did not deter him.  He wanted to fly and he succeeded.  But he never wore the emblem of a national collegiate society to which he was invited and which he joined.  It was the Spiked Shoe, an honor awarded only to outstanding track men.  He more than made the grade while taking navy V training at Cornell and was an outstanding member of the track and field squad.  At North High he was one of the boys who set the sectional mark in the relay.  Mr. Arrigoni, a former U.S. Navy Ensign and fight pilot, had been in the employ of the Binghamton Sun in the Sidney area for about a month.  He entered the U.S. Navy at the age of 18 shortly after his graduation from Binghamton Central High School.  Following preflight training at Cornell, Colgate, Chapel Hill, N.C., and Glen View, Ill., he was commissioned an ensign at the Corpus Christi Naval training Station in Texas.  Mr. Arrigoni went into active duty with the Atlantic fleet attached to escort carriers.  A few months before his discharge, he was assigned to the U.S.S. Midway as a fighter pilot.  Discharged from the navy as a lieutenant last August, he had been employed by the Sun since that time.  He is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Arrigoni, 7 Columbia ave.; two brothers, Fred Jr., Binghamton policeman, and Lt. Joseph Arrigoni of Corpus Christi, Tex., and one sister, Adele Arrigoni, 7 Columbia ave, Binghamton.  He was a nephew of City Councilman Peter T. Campon.  The body was removed to the Daniel F. O'Neil Funeral Home, 181 Court st., where friends may call today.  Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

 

Mr. Hines, a mechanic at the Scintilla Magneto Plant, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gerald T. Hine, 56 North Main Street, Bainbridge.  Besides his parents, he is survived by his wife, Mrs. Edith Hine, a 2-year-old son, Gary; six sisters, Mrs. Paul Rosenstein, Mrs. James Epply and Mrs. James Carpenter, all of Sidney, and the misses Betty, Neoma, and Marion Hines, of Bainbridge, and two brothers, Richard of Sidney, and Ronald of Bainbridge.

 

 

Gerald W. Hine