trolleyfan
71 posts
Dec 28, 2014
3:49 PM
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I was looking for information on this crash from the mid 50's. I was going to school at Oakview Elementary, and I'm guessing I was in 4th or 5th grade, making it about 1955 or 56. I remember it was in the late fall or winter. When school was out, my Mom picked me up and said we were going to go look at a big airplane that crashed on Wilmington Pike. Back then, most of Wilmington was country. There were houses from Stroop Road and about a mile or two going towards Bellbrook, after that, all woods. The Airplane was an XB-50 trying to make it to WPAFB, but it came down in the woods on the north side of Wilmington Pike. It was probably about a half mile or so north of where 675 is now going towards Stroop Road. I remember pieces of the plane were hanging from the trees and scattered all over the field. The crash was earlier in the day and all 11 or 12 crew members were killed, but all bodies had been removed before we got there. If anybody remembers anything about this, I'd like to hear about it,
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olds88
293 posts
Dec 28, 2014
5:02 PM
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Only one iknow of south of Dayton was off east Spring valley rd.about 1 mile east of cloy.It was in that time frame and was plane out of Indiana.Pilot was only one aboard.Was eating lunch at The Stage Coach inn in Centerville when call came across police monitor.We actually beat the police there but we were quickly run off.There was nothing left of plane.
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joey m
293 posts
Dec 29, 2014
8:37 AM
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olds88 This has nothing to do with plane crash but you mentioned The Stage Coach Inn and that brought back old memoryof the Inn. My dad and myself were friends of the owner and if I'm not mistaken I thought he was a minister. I remember a lot of construction workers ate there Mostly home cooked meals. And "olds" did you ever eat at the pizza house caty corner to the Inn right next door to Town Hall. It was called Angelina's Pizza. My dad owned it and I worked there in the late 50's.
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olds88
297 posts
Dec 29, 2014
4:49 PM
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Joey-Do not recall pizza shop at that location.There was a drug store and then Bills doughnuts.I had a cousin who lived on south main and I was out there a lot.If you remember they only had one cop {smith}and he spent a lot of time at Stage coach hence the police monitor.
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joey m
296 posts
Dec 30, 2014
8:13 AM
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olds88 Our Pizza House was there before Bills Donuts moved in there. Dad moved the business down the street to the building that sits back off the street next to where Jack Summers Tire was.
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olds88
298 posts
Dec 30, 2014
2:48 PM
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You must have been there after drug store moved Joey.Parking was always a problem with that area.Its much better now.Before the APD was started the zoning was pretty much non existant.
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Jerry59
1 post
Jan 02, 2015
7:26 AM
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trolleyfan Actually this happened on Tuttle ave just east of Smithville. A friend and I were playing basketball outside of Orville Wright grade school after school was out. We heard and then saw smoke from the crash. We ran up there and got there before the fire dept from wpafb. It took off the top of a house on south side of Tuttle and came to rest on top of a house on north side. It just missed a bus which was still sitting there as the trolley wires were down.
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Jerry59
2 posts
Jan 02, 2015
7:42 AM
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This happened in Sept of 1957. It was a B26 with pilot/copilot, both killed. Plus 2 people on ground. One of which was cutting grass. The other was in basement of house that was demolished.
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luv my dayton
784 posts
Jan 02, 2015
7:50 AM
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Jerry believe it may have been in 56-58 that the Tuttle ave crash took place. There was at that time no Pinewood plaza. I may have been about 13 when it happened and how weird it was to see a plane that size laying across the road. I had started a thread way back on the subject and was looking for details as all the articles I had saved from newspaper were destroyed. Someone had a lot of information . Went back looking for the thread and unable to locate it again. Both times living in Dayton have been in the flight pattern of Wright Patt and as a child living in home at corner of third and smithville us kids would be terrified when playing outside and one of the big planes was coming up the hill and low over our house. Mom hated it as she would no longer get us down for a nap and here came a plane rattleing the house and things hanging on walls. We have seen quite a display over the years of what the base has and feel safer knowing their close bye. Plus what a great place to visit at the Air force Museum.
Last Edited by luv my dayton on Jan 02, 2015 8:09 AM
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FreedomWriter
112 posts
Jan 02, 2015
7:53 AM
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Actually the crash happened right across the street from where Kohls is now on Wilmington Pike which at the time was a farm field along a tree line fence. There are now homes built in that place.
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Calhoun
330 posts
Jan 02, 2015
8:14 AM
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But are these not two separate mishaps? No way trolleyfan could have confused a smallish, twin-engine medium bomber like a B-26 with a large, four-engine B-50. The fact he mentioned an 11/12 crew who were killed further confirms the a/c he saw wasn't a B-26.
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FreedomWriter
118 posts
Jan 02, 2015
8:39 AM
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I would think they are two seperate things as they are far apart from one another.
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trolleyfan
76 posts
Jan 02, 2015
6:11 PM
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They are two separate crashes. My Mom took me to see the crash on Wilmington Pike and it was weird to see that. Especially when your about 10 years old. I am also aware of the Tuttle Ave Crash. My cousin Jimmy Tobias was on duty at Tobias funeral home. Back in those days, most ambulances were owned by the funeral homes, and he was dispatched to transport one of the victims. I read an article about the Tuttle crash. I remember the Pilot was a Captain James Meloncon stationed at an air force base in Texas. Thanks for your post FreedomWriter. That fills a few blanks in. I remember how spooky it was to see big hunks of metal pieces of the airplane hanging from trees. I also remember seeing at least two motors and a landing gear laying in the field at the crash site.
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FreedomWriter
124 posts
Jan 03, 2015
6:31 PM
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Re trolleyfan: Between us all posting things, we should be able to piece most of these things together. And hey, what you know, I may not and vice versa.
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trolleyfan
77 posts
Jan 03, 2015
8:31 PM
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I agree. That's one of the cool things about this blog. I'll keep looking too.
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trolleyfan
78 posts
Jan 03, 2015
9:13 PM
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Here's the official info on the B-26 that crashed on Tuttle Ave. U. S. Air Force Major James Melancon, 36, of Dallas, Texas, is killed when the Douglas B-26 Invader he was piloting crashes in a residential area near Dayton, Ohio, at 1659 hrs. Coming down at 1843 Tuttle Avenue, the flight, out of Wright Field, strikes a home, killing the pilot, co-pilot Capt. Wilho R. Heikkinen, 31, and two on the ground, and injuring others. Mildred VanZant, 44, an assistant director of nursing at St. Elizabeth Hospital, was killed when the plane impacted her house. Her brother Walter Geisler, 53, was mowing the lawn behind the house when he was killed. Four houses were struck by wreckage and two were set alight. An investigation determined that a loose engine cowling moved forward into the propeller. The pilot's son, Mark E. Melancon, will die in the Thunderbirds demonstration team Diamond Crash in Nevada in 1982.[203][204]
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KennyE11
242 posts
Jan 03, 2015
10:53 PM
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Wow - this topic has peaked my interest. I'm sure you guys have seen the same sources that I found, but the link below is to a Wreckchasing message board from 2009, where someone was asking a similar question:
www.pacaeropress.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3533167
(at the risk of my post hitting the spam folder...).
The cool thing about the poster's question is that it came with a link to a Garden City, Kansas, newspaper page from 2/28/1956, with an article about the crash (on the left side of the page).
There was a response from someone indicating the aircraft was a B-50D, with tail number 48-0072, but that poster thought the crash was on 2/27/1955. Since the original post had the newspaper attachment, I would be inclined to believe the 2/27/1956 date was correct.
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trolleyfan
79 posts
Jan 04, 2015
6:03 AM
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Thanks for the post KennyE11. I think 1956 would be the year because I'm fairly sure I was ten when it happened, however this is confusing. I know the crash was on Wilmington Pike, and Freedom Writer confirmed that, and the area where Kohl's is at was the area we went to, to see the crash. Here's the confusing thing. I was unaware of the crash of the B-50 between Lebanon and Mason. I think it's not far from Spring Valley. Those two area's are not far apart in one sense, but to drive from one crash site to the other I would guess would be at least 30 minutes or maybe a little more. I lived on Ackerman Blvd and I know it didn't take more than ten minutes to get there, so I know it was on Wilmington Pike. The other strange thing is I googled "air force airplane crashes", and it brought up a wikipedi link for just that. There was 2 of them. One for 1950 thru 1955, and another one for 1956 thru 1959. I have been through those listings 3 or 4 times, but listing for the crash I'm looking for. My memory isn't what it once was, but I'm not that far gone ! LOL Very Strange.
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KennyE11
243 posts
Jan 05, 2015
1:38 AM
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trolleyfan - I noted that your crash in question is missing from the Wikipedia listing, however I think the newspaper article attached to my previous website reference clearly indicates that the crash of B-50D aircraft no. 48-0072 occurred on 2/27/1956 in the area you've described (i.e. Wilmington Pike).
For other interested readers of this post (that don't want to do the research), the crash near Lebanon on 7/13/1950 also involved a B-50D bomber, aircraft no. 49-0267. This crash killed 16 crewman (4 officers, 12 airmen), and was apparently a "broken arrow" incident. The bomber was on a training mission from Biggs AFB (near El Paso, TX), and mechanical difficulties caused the bomber to nosedive from 7,000 feet. There was detonation of the nuclear weapon's explosive material, but there was no fissile material in the nukes. The explosion was felt over 25 miles away, and left a crater 25 feet deep and 200 square feet.
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trolleyfan
80 posts
Jan 05, 2015
4:59 AM
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Thanks KennyE11. I'm not going to give up on the research. I talked to my cousin in Dayton last night, and he remembers his Mom & Dad talking about it and showing him where it happen on Wilmington, but Bill was only 4 years old when it happened and only remembers my Aunt & Uncle talking about it. BTW What part of Dayton did you grow up in. Barry
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KennyE11
244 posts
Jan 05, 2015
4:01 PM
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trolleyfan - I'm from the Trotwood / Salem Mall area. Lived briefly in Huber Heights when I began my career at DESC, but I left the Dayton area in 1986.
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trolleyfan
81 posts
Jan 05, 2015
5:47 PM
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Our band played at Wampler's Ballarena. I think that was out by Salem Mall. Also close to Icelandia. I was born in Belmont, moved to kettering at 5 years old and then out to Beavercreek when I was in the 8th grade. I now live in Georgia and wish I was back in Dayton. Barry.
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KennyE11
246 posts
Jan 05, 2015
10:27 PM
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Wampler's Ballarena is part of the Hara Arena complex on Shiloh Springs Road, approximately 1-1/2 miles east of the Salem Mall location.
In contrast to trolleyfan, I don't miss living in Dayton. I visit family in the Dayton area at least once a year, and enjoy visiting various Dayton locations (at least those that still exist), but I wouldn't trade Orlando for Dayton. I'm not ashamed that I was born and raised in the Dayton area, but the growth that I saw in Dayton during my youth ebbed long ago, and each time I visit I'm reminded of that.
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trolleyfan
82 posts
Jan 06, 2015
4:22 AM
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Your right Kenny, and I have been to Orlando and it is beautiful. I still miss Dayton and I guess part of my thinking is I'm retired, so the economy doesn't have the affect on me like it would if I was still dependent on making a living. I still miss it though and like you, enjoy a visit to what family I have left about once a year.
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Syxpack
175 posts
Jan 08, 2015
6:16 PM
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trolleyfan, I was sure the plane crash on Wilmington Pike happened on the Dille property close, to where the new Costco stands. When they were building Costco and talking so much about the property, I was looking for some mention of the crash, but never saw anything, so I thought maybe I was wrong about the location. I only know that a neighbor's husband was one of the crew members who was killed and my neighbor was left a young widow with two small children to raise. She also told me where it happened. I also had a carpenter friend who was working on the roof of a new home somewhere close to Wilmington Pike. He saw the plane go down and talked about it often before he passed away. The one on Tuttle was a different crash They both happened within a couple of years of each other in the mid-50's. I think you could find more about it at Dayton Metro Library downtown. I'm sorry, but anyone of my acquaintances who would have known anything about it, have all passed away.
Last Edited by Syxpack on Jan 08, 2015 9:04 PM
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trolleyfan
83 posts
Jan 09, 2015
4:34 PM
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Thanks Syxpack. I'm the same way. My Dad knew the details, but he passed on 2009 and the rest of my family who knew of it are also gone. I think your right, that it was either right at or close to the Dille property. I was thinking maybe I could take out a subscription to the Dayton Daily News online for a month and get access to the archive papers. Thanks for your imput. I appreciate it. Barry
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