Terror over Elizabeth, New Jersey: Three Plane Crashes in 58 Days and the Fight for Newark Airport

by Peter Zablocki

Overview

With safety protocols in their infancy and the jet engine still in development, early commercial flight above American cities was too often deadly. Between December 1951 and January 1952, three separate plane crashes barreled down onto Elizabeth, New Jersey. Many dozens perished as the crashes destroyed entire city blocks and wreaked havoc throughout various neighborhoods. Frightened residents turned to the nearby Newark Airport for blame as a groundswell of political pushback occurred in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to stop the airport's expansion. President Truman formed an airport safety commission in response that recommended better zoning around airports and runways. Author Peter Zablocki tells the harrowing story of one of the most unique and tragic series of plane crashes in the nation's history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467149679
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	11/22/2021
Series:	Disaster
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	1,035,984
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Peter Zablocki is an author, researcher and teacher living in Denville, New Jersey. Focusing on local history, he is the author of Denville Goes to War: Denville's Story of World War I, Denville in World War II and The Denville 13: Murder, Redemption & Forgiveness in Small Town New Jersey and is an AP seminar and research teacher with more than fifteen years of teaching experience. Peter serves as the vice-president of the Denville Historical Society and Museum and is one of Denville's town historians.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Introduction 11

1 Newark Airport and the Dawn of Commercial Travel 19

2 The Ruckus Before the Storm 29

3 When Planes Started Falling 39

4 The Twentieth Plane in Two Hours 51

5 "Can't Make It Back" 63

6 A Battle for the Fate of an Airport 79

7 Back to the New Normal 87

Epilogue 95

Notes 99

About the Author 111