Abe Wasn’t Lying About The Park Slope Plane Crash In ‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’
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There's a lot to take in during the first few episodes of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 5: the time jumps, Lenny rents a house in California, and Midge's career is back on track. However, one moment that may have shocked you was a story Abe told his young grandson, Ethan.
Like most grandfathers, Abe starts the story with a random, cryptic question: "Have you heard of Park Slope?" Obviously, this young boy living in upper Manhattan would have no idea what Brooklyn is, let alone Park Slope. So, of course, Ethan says "No." Then, Abe recounts the most gruesome story imaginable to help his grandson cope with the fear of sleeping in his own bed.
"A United Airlines airplane and a Trans World airplane collided in midair, just flew right into each other," Abe told his grandson. "The wreckage rained down onto a Park Slope intersection, killing every passenger on board and six people on the ground."
While this may sound like a story Abe is telling his grandson to scare him into his own bed, this tragic crash actually occurred. Women's Health dug into the details of this 1960 tragedy.
It happened on December 16, 1960.
The United Airlines flight that Abe spoke about collided with the Trans World airplane on December 16, 1960, as the two planes headed in opposite directions while crossing over New York City, according to the National Air and Space Museum.
United Airlines Flight 826 was headed toward John F. Kennedy International Airport (then referred to as Idlewild Airport) from Chicago, while Trans World Airlines Flight 266 was making a descent into LaGuardia Airport in Queens from Ohio, per New York Daily News. The crash caused the Trans World plane to strike down in Staten Island, while the United jet crashed in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
The probable cause of the incident was that the United flight had proceeded beyond the clearance limit given by air traffic control, per the National Air and Space Museum, but couldn't be contacted due to weather issues. The flight had been 12 miles off course at the time of the crash, according to The New York Times.
134 people were killed.
In addition to 128 people who were onboard both flights, six people who were on the ground in Brooklyn were also killed because of the crash. The Park Slope casualties included two men selling Christmas trees, and one man shoveling snow, per the New York Times.
The tragedy left parts of Park Slope completely demolished.
The plane crash started a jet fuel fire that destroyed nearly 10 buildings in the surrounding Park Slope area, per The New York Times. The tail end of the United Airlines plane crashed at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Sterling Place, leaving an enormous trench in its place, per Patch. The wing of the aircraft also smashed through the roof of a four-story brownstone at 126 Sterling Place, per the New York Times, which is still visibly changed today, per TikTok.
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Over 2,500 volunteers joined in to help at the scene—including police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, and civil defense volunteers, per The New York Times. The newspaper also reported that some pieces of the fallen jet still sat in a Park Slope resident's backyard in 2010.
The Staten Island plane crash was fatal for all of its passengers, but no one on the ground was injured.
You can see Abe recount this horrific event to his grandson in the newest season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, now streaming on Amazon Prime.
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