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New Play Takes On The Park Slope Plane Crash Of 1960
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Aug 18, 2017
Modified Aug 18, 2017
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Aug 18, 2017
Modified Aug 18, 2017
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On December 16th, 1960, a United Airlines plane collided with a TWA aircraft, with the planes crashing down in Park Slope and in New Dorp, Staten Island. 134 people died in the collision, with victims including everyone onboard both planes along with six people on the ground. Now, it's the subject of a new play from the Roundabout Theatre Company, dubbed Napoli, Brooklyn.
The show, now performing at The Laura Pels Theatre at 111 West 46th Street, is directed by Meghan Kennedy, and tells the story of an Italian-American family living in Park Slope in 1960, focusing on how the plane crash affected them. Per the synopsis:
In 1960 Brooklyn, the Muscolinos have raised three proud and passionate daughters. But as the girls come of age in a rapidly changing world, their paths diverge—in drastic and devastating ways—from their parents’ deeply traditional values. Despite their fierce love, each young woman harbors a secret longing that, if revealed, could tear the family apart. When an earth-shattering event rocks their Park Slope neighborhood, life comes to a screeching halt and the Muscolino sisters are forced to confront their conflicting visions for the future in this gripping, provocative portrait of love in all its danger and beauty.
The real plane crash had the highest death toll of any aviation incident at the time. The New York Times the next day described the scene in their reporting:
The scene in Brooklyn, where one plane fell in a densely populated district, reminded one witness of the bombed and burning villages of the Korean War. In Staten Island, where the wreckage narrowly missed a community of wooden homes and a public school, witnesses said the blood-drenched snow and the bodies made them think of a battlefield.
The one surviving passenger was an 11-year-old boy named Stephen Baltz, who was traveling from Chicago to meet his mother and sister in Yonkers for Christmas. He was found in a snowbank nearly a mile from the wreckage at 7th Avenue and Sterling Place and was taken to New York Methodist Hospital, where he died the next day. There's a small plaque dedicated to him at the hospital, which contains the 65 cents in nickels and dimes he was carrying with him at the time of the crash.
There are also still remnants of the crash at the wreckage site in Park Slope. If you look closely at 123 Sterling Place, located right at the crash site, you can see a difference in color in the brick where plane parts struck and knocked down some of the building. One neighborhood resident actually has jet parts in his backyard, and a memorial was unveiled at Green-Wood cemetery in 2010.
Napoli, Brooklyn runs through August 27th; you can purchase tickets online.
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napoli brooklyn
park slope
park slope plane crash
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Rebecca Fishbein
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