NOTICE TO OUR READERS: THIS GALLERY WILL BE CLOSING 1 AUGUST 2009 - PLEASE VISIT OUR JOURNALS AT: http://journals.fotki.com/Rollie08/ {Click on "Add More Facts" on right to Read Complete Article} : I started my day with breakfast in Hebron, Kentucky. I decided that while I ate, I would review newspaper accounts from the November 1967 Cincinnati and Kentucky Post Times Star editions which detailed eyewitness accounts of the crash of TWA Flight 128...
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NOTICE TO OUR READERS: THIS GALLERY WILL BE CLOSING 1 AUGUST 2009 - PLEASE VISIT OUR JOURNALS AT: http://journals.fotki.com/Rollie08/ {Click on "Add More Facts" on right to Read Complete Article} : I started my day with breakfast in Hebron, Kentucky. I decided that while I ate, I would review newspaper accounts from the November 1967 Cincinnati and Kentucky Post Times Star editions which detailed eyewitness accounts of the crash of TWA Flight 128 on Mr. Wagner's farm in Hebron, Kentucky on the night of November 20,1967. We were scheduled to meet with Chris Stephens at 2:00 PM at the Marriott Cincinnati Airport whose grandparents, Ida and Elbert Stephens, lived just to the east of the Wagner Farm on the night of the crash. Two flight attendants and a United States Air Force Airman with a child in his arms, stumbled out of the apple orchard where the aircraft had come down and sought assistance with the Stephens'. While looking over the newspapers, it was difficult looking at the children's pictures having heard so many witnesses and responders asking me about them and if I had heard from the surviving children, wondering where they might be now, in 2009.
With breakfast over, I returned to the hotel where I found our group already assembled and waiting to head up the hillside to the crash site of American Airlines Flight 383. But before departing, we reviewed with Harvey Pelley the evening of November 20, 1967 since his squad transported 8 of the injured from the TWA Flight 128 crash site to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Covington, Kentucky. He drew us a sketch of the interior of the Hebron Volunteer Fire Department ambulance so we could better understand how they crammed 8 people into such a small vehicle. Once we got that all straightened out, we headed towards the hillside where we would fill the gaps as to where American Airlines Flight 383 came to rest and as to the events in the immediate aftermath, including the story of Captain Weekley and one of Northern Kentucky's favorite stewardesses, Toni Ketchell. As we stepped off of Kentucky Route 8 and onto the farm road with Harvey Pelley, little did we know that we had stepped out of the year 2009 and had entered the world of 1965. The day was just beginning.
For the fourth time, I headed back up the Hebron hillside walking as usual southeastward towards the "sacred" ground of flight 383. We all, having a number of years behind us, walked a few minutes and then would gather around Harvey Pelley to hear a story about the event we were now so deeply into researching or a story about Mr. Pelley's career. This was repeated a number of times as we managed our way up the hill {to think that many of the first responders ran up the hill....okay...we walked}.
We arrived at the access road and finally had flat land to walk on as we headed eastward. Harvey almost instantly became extremely interested in finding a tree that he told us was where the airliner's nose had come to rest. Just before we got to the end of the road he resumed heading up the hill. Today we would find out that the crash site we had identified since 2005, was actually the area where flight 383 had skidded before coming to rest approximately 150 feet uphill from our original site which equated to the length of the airliner. The tail rested where the access road would terminate after being cleared from Kentucky Route 8. The airliner's nose rested against a tree that Harvey was now investigating intensely. While Mark and Linda were looking for debris {we are looking into donating small pieces of the Boeing 727 we have found to a local library, museum, or the Hebron Fire Department to display to the public along with our journals for an organized historical record of Flight 383}, I decided to join Harvey, higher on the hill side. I took some pictures and watched Harvey examine the tree. He told me that one of the first persons to arrive at the scene was a local mail carrier, Bill Smith, and that he might have responded to recover mail bags in the wreckage. I immediately challenged him as to how a U.S mail carrier would get there so fast and then be worried about the mail! He placed a call to Bill Smith on his cell. I couldn't help but to ponder the moment. The last time Harvey had been on the hill, communication was almost nonexsistent. A telephone line had to be run from a Kenton County telephone line several miles away to the crash site in Boone County where it was connected to a telephone nailed to a tree. Harvey handed the cell to me. OOPS! My error. My mind was in the year 2009 imagining how government authorities would react today, I had to quickly place myself back in 1965. Bill simply lived close by and was responding to a downed airplane, not having any idea that it was a huge jetliner bound from New York City. I went ahead and asked Bill if he would sit with us for an interview since we were interested in his story. He readily agreed and I suggested that he meet us at the Marriott at 2:00 PM when we were scheduled to meet with Chris Stephens. He accepted the invitation.
Back on the hillside, Mark Free found a bell crank from the plane. This piece had been used as a part to move air controls such as flaps, ailerons, and rudders etc. This was an interesting part. I photographed it and upon returning to Dayton, I emailed the image to Lee Zuver who I had gone to aeronautics school with to see if he could identify the part and where it may have been utilized on the aircraft. He could identify it but not to location. He forwarded to a 727 mechanic, but he, unfortunately, could not positively identify it as to it's exact application.
We all regrouped on the access road. Harvey went down the hill a little to our original crash site, knowing that the airliner had slod through this area. He returned moments later with a piece of broken dinnerware which he immediately identified as coming from flight 383!
Harvey identified for us the area at the end of the road where recovery crews had set the crane to lift the tail of the airliner onto a flat bed truck for removal to the airport for examination by the CAB. All of this information was great for our group as it filled voids in our knowledge and gave us a better understanding of the debris field.
Linda popped a question, "Harvey, how is it to be back on the hillside after all these years?"
Harvey responded, "unreal". He then told us that it had been hard to cope in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy as there were no counseling services or support groups available for the first responders. From time to time thay would all meet and discuss what they experienced but for most the memories remain vivid.
We proceeded west, back along the access road to where it curved back down the hill towards route 8. We followed it until it "disappeared into time". We continued down the hill, resting for awhile at the power line. We decided to head to "Herb's' {a local restuarant} along Kentucky 20} for lunch before our meeting at the Marriott.
Lunch at Herb's is always good. A quiet location, known to the locals, it is an excellent place to dine {"famous' for it's fish dinners}and enjoy a break from the project and the day's heat.
Our meeting resumed at 2:00 PM at the Marriott. We met Chris Stephens whose grandparents took in two stewardesses, a U.S. Air Force Airman, and a 5 year old boy from the TWA crash in 1967. We also met Bill Smith who I had talked to earlier in the day by phone at the crash site. He was a "volunteer" at the 1965 crash and a member of the Hebron Volunteer Fire Department in the 1967 crash.
We took our seats and immediately the questions and responses began in earnest. Before long we weren't sure what flight we were discussing as we jumped back and forth from flight 383 to 128. I made a note to improve the process in the future as we are becoming a much larger group. Nevertheless, we came out of the meeting with two new members and a massive amount of information.
The meeting ended around 3:30 PM. Harvey wanted to know if we had time to go to the Hebron Fire Protection Station #2. I quickly said that I was in town for the weekend, was staying at the Marriott and basically had all day. Linda and Bill had to return home . Harvey Pelley, Mark Free, Chris Stephens, and I jumped into Mark's vehicle and proceeded to the station. We looked at exclusive photos of the old fire engines, ambulances, and crash photos from the 1965 hillside accident of 383. I asked for permission to post a number of the images online for our project. A quick call to the Hebron Fire Chief and a brief conversation with Harvey, we had the okay to use the pics. A nice enhancement to the story of both 383 and 128.
We were at the station for about one hour. The crew at the station suggested that on the way home, we stop and take a look at the latest "disaster" to hit Hebron. Apparently a heavy rain had fallen the week before dumping a huge volume of water over Hebron in a matter of minutes. The water collapsed the back end of the UPS Distribution Warehouse just blocks from the fire station. We checked it out and it was impressive. Luckily no one had been injured in the event.
We welcome Chris Stephens and Bill Smith to the Flight 383/ 128 Memorial Group.
Arriving back at the hotel, Mark and I decided to head to the bar inside, have a couple of beers, and discuss the day's events............. less
With breakfast over, I returned to the hotel where I found our group already assembled and waiting to head up the hillside to the crash site of American Airlines Flight 383. But before departing, we reviewed with Harvey Pelley the evening of November 20, 1967 since his squad transported 8 of the injured from the TWA Flight 128 crash site to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Covington, Kentucky. He drew us a sketch of the interior of the Hebron Volunteer Fire Department ambulance so we could better understand how they crammed 8 people into such a small vehicle. Once we got that all straightened out, we headed towards the hillside where we would fill the gaps as to where American Airlines Flight 383 came to rest and as to the events in the immediate aftermath, including the story of Captain Weekley and one of Northern Kentucky's favorite stewardesses, Toni Ketchell. As we stepped off of Kentucky Route 8 and onto the farm road with Harvey Pelley, little did we know that we had stepped out of the year 2009 and had entered the world of 1965. The day was just beginning.
For the fourth time, I headed back up the Hebron hillside walking as usual southeastward towards the "sacred" ground of flight 383. We all, having a number of years behind us, walked a few minutes and then would gather around Harvey Pelley to hear a story about the event we were now so deeply into researching or a story about Mr. Pelley's career. This was repeated a number of times as we managed our way up the hill {to think that many of the first responders ran up the hill....okay...we walked}.
We arrived at the access road and finally had flat land to walk on as we headed eastward. Harvey almost instantly became extremely interested in finding a tree that he told us was where the airliner's nose had come to rest. Just before we got to the end of the road he resumed heading up the hill. Today we would find out that the crash site we had identified since 2005, was actually the area where flight 383 had skidded before coming to rest approximately 150 feet uphill from our original site which equated to the length of the airliner. The tail rested where the access road would terminate after being cleared from Kentucky Route 8. The airliner's nose rested against a tree that Harvey was now investigating intensely. While Mark and Linda were looking for debris {we are looking into donating small pieces of the Boeing 727 we have found to a local library, museum, or the Hebron Fire Department to display to the public along with our journals for an organized historical record of Flight 383}, I decided to join Harvey, higher on the hill side. I took some pictures and watched Harvey examine the tree. He told me that one of the first persons to arrive at the scene was a local mail carrier, Bill Smith, and that he might have responded to recover mail bags in the wreckage. I immediately challenged him as to how a U.S mail carrier would get there so fast and then be worried about the mail! He placed a call to Bill Smith on his cell. I couldn't help but to ponder the moment. The last time Harvey had been on the hill, communication was almost nonexsistent. A telephone line had to be run from a Kenton County telephone line several miles away to the crash site in Boone County where it was connected to a telephone nailed to a tree. Harvey handed the cell to me. OOPS! My error. My mind was in the year 2009 imagining how government authorities would react today, I had to quickly place myself back in 1965. Bill simply lived close by and was responding to a downed airplane, not having any idea that it was a huge jetliner bound from New York City. I went ahead and asked Bill if he would sit with us for an interview since we were interested in his story. He readily agreed and I suggested that he meet us at the Marriott at 2:00 PM when we were scheduled to meet with Chris Stephens. He accepted the invitation.
Back on the hillside, Mark Free found a bell crank from the plane. This piece had been used as a part to move air controls such as flaps, ailerons, and rudders etc. This was an interesting part. I photographed it and upon returning to Dayton, I emailed the image to Lee Zuver who I had gone to aeronautics school with to see if he could identify the part and where it may have been utilized on the aircraft. He could identify it but not to location. He forwarded to a 727 mechanic, but he, unfortunately, could not positively identify it as to it's exact application.
We all regrouped on the access road. Harvey went down the hill a little to our original crash site, knowing that the airliner had slod through this area. He returned moments later with a piece of broken dinnerware which he immediately identified as coming from flight 383!
Harvey identified for us the area at the end of the road where recovery crews had set the crane to lift the tail of the airliner onto a flat bed truck for removal to the airport for examination by the CAB. All of this information was great for our group as it filled voids in our knowledge and gave us a better understanding of the debris field.
Linda popped a question, "Harvey, how is it to be back on the hillside after all these years?"
Harvey responded, "unreal". He then told us that it had been hard to cope in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy as there were no counseling services or support groups available for the first responders. From time to time thay would all meet and discuss what they experienced but for most the memories remain vivid.
We proceeded west, back along the access road to where it curved back down the hill towards route 8. We followed it until it "disappeared into time". We continued down the hill, resting for awhile at the power line. We decided to head to "Herb's' {a local restuarant} along Kentucky 20} for lunch before our meeting at the Marriott.
Lunch at Herb's is always good. A quiet location, known to the locals, it is an excellent place to dine {"famous' for it's fish dinners}and enjoy a break from the project and the day's heat.
Our meeting resumed at 2:00 PM at the Marriott. We met Chris Stephens whose grandparents took in two stewardesses, a U.S. Air Force Airman, and a 5 year old boy from the TWA crash in 1967. We also met Bill Smith who I had talked to earlier in the day by phone at the crash site. He was a "volunteer" at the 1965 crash and a member of the Hebron Volunteer Fire Department in the 1967 crash.
We took our seats and immediately the questions and responses began in earnest. Before long we weren't sure what flight we were discussing as we jumped back and forth from flight 383 to 128. I made a note to improve the process in the future as we are becoming a much larger group. Nevertheless, we came out of the meeting with two new members and a massive amount of information.
The meeting ended around 3:30 PM. Harvey wanted to know if we had time to go to the Hebron Fire Protection Station #2. I quickly said that I was in town for the weekend, was staying at the Marriott and basically had all day. Linda and Bill had to return home . Harvey Pelley, Mark Free, Chris Stephens, and I jumped into Mark's vehicle and proceeded to the station. We looked at exclusive photos of the old fire engines, ambulances, and crash photos from the 1965 hillside accident of 383. I asked for permission to post a number of the images online for our project. A quick call to the Hebron Fire Chief and a brief conversation with Harvey, we had the okay to use the pics. A nice enhancement to the story of both 383 and 128.
We were at the station for about one hour. The crew at the station suggested that on the way home, we stop and take a look at the latest "disaster" to hit Hebron. Apparently a heavy rain had fallen the week before dumping a huge volume of water over Hebron in a matter of minutes. The water collapsed the back end of the UPS Distribution Warehouse just blocks from the fire station. We checked it out and it was impressive. Luckily no one had been injured in the event.
We welcome Chris Stephens and Bill Smith to the Flight 383/ 128 Memorial Group.
Arriving back at the hotel, Mark and I decided to head to the bar inside, have a couple of beers, and discuss the day's events............. less
Duration:
- Jun 27, 2009 — Jun 27, 2009
Location(s):
Also known as:
- Hike to AA 383 Crash Site
