By C. S. F.
Plane accidents and crashes are
embroiled within the history of aircraft. One airplane crash of US Airways
Flight 1549, illustrates an example of this within the past five years. US
Airways Flight 1549 was the plane that crashed into the Hudson River in New
York. The pilot, Chesley B. Sullenberger, was able to navigate the aircraft
into the river to save the lives of the passengers and crew onboard.[1]
This crash garnered national attention and has been one of the most recent
crashes to do so in recent history. In 1933, a plane crash happened that would
accumulate national attention and the enigma it involved would lead to
investigations as to why the plane had been destroyed. Various forms of
government, organizations, and people involved would try to find out the answer
to the riddle of the plane that exploded over Chestertown, Indiana.
The history of aviation in aircraft lighter than air first began with the Wright brother’s plane in 1903. From there the military would see the benefit of using aircraft to turn the tide of war in their favor. During World War I aircraft manufacturers were building these machines at increasing rates, so much so, that a surplus was left over after the war. In 1917 the U.S. government saw the advantage of using airplanes to transport mail. Advancements for aviation eventually led to the ability for commercial air flight.[2] The Air Commerce Act of 1926 would allow government to regulate commercial air flights and the growing industry of passenger flights.[3] This act set up the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce, which would be one of the many groups investigating the Chestertown plane explosion. One of the most commercially successful planes to transport passengers was the Boeing Model 247. It was unveiled in 1933 and United Air Lines promptly bought 60 of them. Based on a low-wing, twin-engine bomber with retractable landing gear built for the military, the Model 247 accommodated 10 passengers and cruised at 155 miles per hour.[4] One of these planes was the same plane involved in the explosion on October 11, 1933 and United Airlines was the company that owned the plane when it exploded.
United Airlines was a company
started by William E. Boeing, Frederick B. Rentschler, and associates involved with
the two men. These people founded the United
Aircraft Transport Corporation, which would eventually lead to the company
United Airlines in 1931. United Airlines quickly became a preferred choice for
passengers on flights because of their stewardesses. The company was the first
to use and train their own stewardesses. United Airlines mostly flew people
across country and their main routes were from New York City to San Francisco
and Seattle.[5]
On October 10,
1933 in Chestertown area a most horrific thing happened. A United Airlines
Boeing Model 247 en route to Chicago, Illinois exploded in air and then hurled
to the ground from over 1000 feet above. Of the seven passengers onboard four
were civilians and three were United Airlines employees. The passengers were identified
as Fred Schendorf, Emil Smith, Warren F. Burris, and Dorathy M. Dwyer. The
United Airlines employees were Chief Pilot Harold R. Tarrant, Co-Pilot A.T.
Ruby, and stewardess Alice Scribner.[6] There were witnesses to
the explosion and crash of the plane, James Graff and Marion Arndt both
farmers. Miss Esther Stroup was also another witness, who saw the plane
explosion. She said her family,“ Saw the sky brilliantly illuminated.” Mr.
Graff would explain the explosion in full detail, “ We ran outside. We saw the
plane burning in air, about 1000 feet up. It was falling like a rock, flames
shooting out on all sides.”[7] These eyewitness reports
show the importance and relevance of the explosion in air. The reports
illustrate the issue that the plane’s explosion was the cause of the wreck.
Local police enforcement was the first
form of organized institutions to respond to the plane crash on Tuesday night.
Sheriff Neil Fry, of Porter County, was one of the officers who responded to
the incident. Neil Fry was born in March of 1899 in Boone, Porter County,
Indiana to Albert and Carrie Frye. His father, Albert, worked as a farmer and
along with Carrie raised the other children.[8]
Neil would go to school and complete high school in four years. Neil would live
in Porter County the duration of his life and raise of family of three along
with his wife while working. In the 1940 census Neil would describe he had as
wage or salary worker in private work. This signifies that at some point
between the crash and the census that he had taken up a new occupation.[9]
Neil’s first observation of the damage done
would help form the basis of opinions later thought by many people in the
investigation. He reported that belongings of the victims within the plane
crash “were riddled as if shot with a machine gun.”[10]
This observation helped support the idea that a bomb was the reason of the
explosion. Amongst the wreckage was a high-powered rifle in the luggage of Emil
Smith. This rifle led to suspicions that Smith may have been involved in the
explosion, but further inquiry ushered the result that Mr. Smith would use his
rifle at a gun shoot in Chicago.[11]
The bodies of the seven victims would be transported to the coroner’s office
for further examination. The coroner of the county, Carl M. Davis, would begin
his analysis of the causes of death and try offering his insight into the issue
of the two explosions.
While local officials began their
investigation United Airlines officials began theirs. United Airlines were also
among the first to examine the debris left from the plane crash the following
morning. A vice-president of the company and first to examine the plane from
United Airlines, E.P. Lott, did not show any conclusive evidence as to why the
plane crashed but he conveyed his opinion on a possible answer. His assessment
of the disaster showed the opinion that motor trouble was a probable
explanation to the crash.[12]
United Airlines initial stance was that the plane did not explode in air. This
is why E.P. Lott’s evaluation did not touch upon the plane explosion in air.
Lott went on record to say that, “We don’t know, of course, what caused the
accident. We’ll try to determine that as soon as possible. People connected
with aviation know that most reports of planes exploding in air are erroneous.”[13]
United Airlines would continue to work along and examine the issues surrounding
the explosion and crash with other government officials and departments taking
in witness accounts of the explosion to gather their evidence.
The same day an inspector from the
Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce, B.M. Jacobs, would also begin
inquiring probable causes of the plane crash.[14]
B.M. Jacobs met with witnesses to the plane explosion but did not offer his own
opinion as to why the plane had exploded in air. The Department of Justice
would also open up their own investigation if United Airlines and the
Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce could not come up with any
answers for the plane explosion.
Carl M. Davis would report at an inquest
Wednesday afternoon that the cause of crash was unknown. Davis ruled out the
possibility of a lightning strike and the fire that consumed the plane in
flames did not occur until after it had crashed to the ground. This report
furthered the possibility that it was a bomb that went off because of the way
aluminum was flung through debris of the plane. This is why Sheriff Neil
reported belongings of the victims being filled with holes.
With these realizations the Department of
Justice in Chicago under Melvin H. Purvis opened up their own investigation
because the aircraft was on its way to their city. Melvin Purvis was born in
1903 and at first his profession was set to be a lawyer. He changed his mind
however and decided to work as a special agent for the Department of Justice.
Rapidly Purvis excelled at his work and soon enough he had garnered the
attention of J. Edgar Hoover. This attention would eventually lead to him
receiving the job as Head of the Department of Justice in Chicago.[15]
Purvis believed that an onboard explosive
caused the explosion so portions of the plane, blanket, and a bottle were sent
to, E.W. Muehlberger, crime detection expert for the Coroner’s office and the
Northwestern University Crime Detection Laboratory. Muehlberger announced that
a bomb was the cause of the in air explosion on Thursday the 12th of
the month.[16]
Muehlberger would go onto explain that his belief is the bomb wasn’t detonated
by time. It believed that Nitroglycerin, a highly explosive substance used in
gunpowder, was the substance that destroyed the plan. By reviewing the plane
wreckage Muehlberger found that the bomb was placed between the toilet and
luggage department of the plane. He also ruled out any possibility that a gas
explosion could’ve caused the damage because of the blanket and items found by
Neil Fry. Muehlberger showed this because a gas explosion wouldn’t have enough
force to riddle something with holes.[17]
His evidence displayed that the plane wasn’t in any danger structurally until
the explosion. With an official
announcement as to the cause of the explosion the organizations involved
cooperated to find out a probable cause and explanation as to why the bomb was
on board. They also needed to find out where the bomb was planted, so the
investigators began to travel where the plane had been.
Initially there was a belief by a
minority that the bomb was planted and going to be used as a suicide mission
for one of the people on the plane. This idea was refuted however because of
the conviction that sabotage was the answer to the plane explosion.[18]
Amongst that belief other ideas about anarchy and murder were also discussed
but never confirmed.[19]
Purvis and the Department of Justice made sure that the two points the plane
made on the trip were investigated. The plane began its trip in Newark, New Jersey
and would stop at Cleveland Airport to be serviced before its trip to Chicago.
By this time United Airlines had ceded their own investigation and complied
fully with the Department of Justice. A vice president of the company D.B.
Coyler would help provide information to the press and allow the investigation
into the two areas the plane was at.[20]
The mystery started to heat up when
Department of Justice workers were in Newark and Cleveland. On the Friday and
Saturday following the crash, investigators interrogated airport officials and
attendants to figure out how the bomb was placed on the plane and who might’ve
been responsible. Crawford Newby, a porter, offered some very vital
information. He told Department of Justice officials that a brown bag was carried
on by a passenger in Newark. This man would be investigated however and
exonerated.[21]There
investigation helped them discover that the bomb could’ve gotten on in two
ways. Either a passenger or employee debarking the plane at Cleveland could’ve
placed it, or somebody could’ve put it in the toilet when it was on the ground
in Newark or Cleveland.[22]
With no answers to a motive and ability to find a culprit the Justice
Department was running out of possible leads. By mid November the inquiry
hadn’t accumulated any new information. It was at this point that the
Department of Justice decided it would not be able to prosecute anyone for the
crime committed.[23]
This investigation was one of the first
done that involved plane sabotage or destruction of some kind. It came as quite
a surprise to United Airline officials because they had carried over 325,000
passengers in a six-year span without any passenger fatalities.[24]
U.S. government wouldn’t fully take over the responsibility of airport and
airplane security until the attacks on 9/11.[25]
Transportation Security Administration now provides preemptive measures to
disallow instances like the one involved in the Chestertown plane crash.
[1] Robert D. McFadden, “All 155 Aboard Safe
as Crippled Jet Crash-Lands in Hudson ,” New
York Times, Jan. 16, 2009, pp. A1.A24
[2]
Chapter 1: Brief History of Aviation, Airline Handbook, Airlines For America, 1995-2014, http://www.airlines.org/Pages/Airline-Handbook-Chapter-1-Brief-History-of-Aviation.aspx
[3] “Aviation in 1926,” New York Times, June 5 1927, p. BR18.
[4] Airline Handbook, Airlines for America.
[5] Encyclopædia
Britannica Online, s. v. "United
Airlines," March, 3 2013,
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/615405/United-Airlines.
[6] “7
Killed In Air Liner,” Tipton
Tribune, Oct. 11, 1933, p.6
[7]“Plane Explodes In Air; 7 Die,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Oct. 11, 1933, p.
1
[8] U.S. Department of Interior, Census
Office, Compendium of the Twelfth Census:
1900, pt.I: Population (Boone,
Porter, Indiana, 1900), 24.
[9] U.S. Department of Interior, Census
Office, Compendium of the Sixteenth Census:
1940, pt.I: Population (Valparaiso,
Porter, Indiana, 1940), 16.
[10] “Coroner Does Not Attempt To Fix
Problem,” Valparaiso Vidette Messenger
Oct. 12, 1933, pp.1,3.
[11] “Suspects Bomb Wrecked Plane,” Prescott Evening courier, Oct. 12, 1933,
p. 3
[12] “Seven Killed In Crash Of Passenger
Plane Near Chestertown,” Logansport
Pharos Tribune, Oct. 11, 1933, p. 1.
[13] “Giant Plane Crashes--7 Die,” The Valparaiso Vidette Messenger, Oct.
11, 1933, pp.1,3.
[14] “7 Lives Lost In Air Crash,” The Hammond
Times, Oct. 11, 1933, p.1, “Witness of Crash Describes Spectacle,” ibid. Oct. 11, 1993, p.6.
[15] Melvin Purvis, Peoples and Events, Public Broadcasting Service, Mar. 1,
2014 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/peopleevents/p_purvis.html
[16] “Wreck Of Air Liner Laid to Bomb,” The New York Times, Oct. 14, 1933, p.5.
[17] “Air Tragedy Explained,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 14, 1933, p.1
[18] “Bomb Blamed For Crash,” Logansport Press, Oct. 14, 1933, pp. 1,5
[19] “Plane Wrecked By Explosive,” Tipton Tribune, Oct. 14, 1933, p. 6
[20] “Wreck of Airliner Laid To Bomb,” p.5
[21] “U. S. PROBE OF AIR CRASH UNDERWAY IN
THREE CITIES,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Oct.
15, 1933, p. 12
[22] “Plane Bombing Trail Gets Hot,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 15, 1933, p. 6
[23]
“Air Crash Bomb Theory Upset After Federal Investigation,” The Washington Post, Nov. 19, 1933, p.15
[24]
“Find Explosive Split Plane,” p.1
