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CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE it, sending a sheet of flame 300 feet into the murky air. Debris and bodies littered the pavement for 50 yards around. The pilot of the twin - engine C131 Convair plane took off from Munich-Rheim Airport and radi oed almost immediately that he was in trouble. He appeared to have been trying to make an emergency landing in the Therie sen Wiese Park where the Mu nich Oktoberfest is held. The plane was taking students from the University of Maryland overseas college at McGraw Bar racks to Northolt Airport, Eng land, for the holidays. In Martin Greif Street, form ing part of the oblong square out side St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, thousands of Bavarians shopped on “Golden Saturday,” the last Saturday before the Christmas holidays. Fog was so thick, motorists were groping through streets with headlights ablaze. At 2:05 p.m. (8:05 a.m. EST), residents of the city 40 per cent bombed out in World War II thought they had been bombed again. The plane snapped across from the spire of St. Paul’s and copper roofing hurtled through the air. The main piece of wreckage smashed into the second section of a tandem streetcar. The car went up like a torch, and scream ing men, women and children poured out, most of them to die in flames on the street. Almost all aboard were killed. The front section of the trolley was not touched. Pedestrians killed Pedestrians waiting for a traf fic light were wrapped in sheets of flame that killed them on the passing auto was caught in the flames, and all in it died. At least two houses were burned out. Mrs. Johanna Starkmeyer, lean ing from her window overlooking the square, heard the tremendous explosion. Chunks of the plane rattled on her roof. “A wave of hot air hit us and dense smoke was all over,” she said. The sexton of St. Paul's, Jo hann Schwind, was preparing the font for a baptism when the blast echoed through the church. He hurried out. The Rev. Karl Froehlich led out a group of altar boys he had been instructing, saw the bodies and began giving last rites. Blackened by Smoke Mrs. Starkmeyer’s face was blackened by the smoke. “Tears were rolling from my cheeks, she said. “I saw a streetcar covered by flames, hu man bodies lighted like torches falling out of it and rolling over the ground. The streets were slippery with slush from a snow last week. In the fog the flames rose bright and eerie. The wreckage was so hot no one could go near it un til the flames subsided and the twisted metal cooled. Badly mutilated bodies lay around the wreckage, those of pe destrians as well as of those who had been aboard the plane and the streetcar. Third Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Ernest Moore flew to Munich from London to head the investigation. There was no immediate expla nation other than that the pilot radioed he was in trouble and there was dense fog. All the students aboard were sons and daughters of service personnel. Their college was part of a world-wide system of higher education for the armed forces by the University of Maryland. Just Friday night, they had held a party because school was out until after the new year. “unconfirmed—scheduled to be aboard.” One of the students was John K. Connery Jr., who died with his father, Maj. John K. Connery Sr., pilot of the ill-fated C-131. The pilot's father was listed as Everett R. Connery, North Port, Mich., and his mother as Mrs. Margaret L. Russell, of Auburn, Ala. The pilot's widow, Mildred, is living in London. Other crew members were: Capt. Louis N. Nelson, son of Mrs. Lucy A. King of Wake, Va. Tech Sgt. Martha N. Williams, whose mother is Mrs. Alice M. Williams, of Valdosta, Ga, Capt. Robert F. Blaess, son of Mrs. Hazel A. Blaess of Ann Arbor, Mich. Mst. Sgt. John J. Bradley, son of Mary Bradley New York, Tech Sgt. Jacob Pas, son of Mrs. Mary Pas of Chicago, Tr. Tech Sgt. Lionel D. Long, son of a Ladie S. Long of Paducah y. In addition to the younger Con nery, the students scheduled to be aboard were Douglas E. Avery, Larry Lee Blake, Heidi Ann Boselli, Molly Hendrix, Marjorie Ellen Karr, Vicki Ann Mahnke, Frederick W. Milburn, Jackson K. Steffensen, Rita Vir ginia Wilber, William H. Bush and Alex M. Schneider.
Newspaper Details
Waco News Tribune
Waco, Texas, US
Sun, Dec 18, 1960
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Laura S.
DE 30 May 2026
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