The Sky is Falling
Wayne County history has some real odd-ball aspects. From losing the bulk of downtown to a natural gas explosion and fire on April 6, 1968, to being the place were the Rev. Jim Jones of Guyana Punch fame received his education. One item that I missed was the near simultaneous crashes of 8 Air Force F-84’s in Wayne County on June 8, 1951. Maybe it was the fact that, although 3 of the pilots died, no one locally was injured, which was not the case for the downtown explosion (41 killed, 150 injured).
Still, it seems like such an odd event that I would have heard something about it during the last 20 plus years that I have lived here. Thank goodness for the Pal-Item and its historical series which today focuses on the crashes after 55 years:
All but three pilots parachuted or escaped to safety. One unlucky pilot’s parachute didn’t open; another pilot was killed and portions of his remains were found near the Perfect Circle plant.The FBI later determined that ice on the planes’ intake screens caused the crashes and not a UFO attack, as some residents speculated.
