SIX DEAD IN PLANE CRASH

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28766, 11 December 1958, Page 12

SIX DEAD IN PLANE CRASH

Houses Struck On Landing (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) NORFOLK (Virginia). December 9. A disabled United States Navy tanker aircraft smashed two houses today in a residential area near Chesapeake Bay. The four men aboard and two babies in one of the houses were killed. Two other persons were burned. The twin-engined aircraft crashed in a main thoroughfare, as it approached the Norfolk naval air station for an emergency landing after its port engine failed. One of the two houses it struck was the home of Lieutehant Joseph Tondora. His wife and two of their three children were at home. The children perished and Mrs Tondora was burned. She was taken to a Naval dispensary. No-one was at home in the other house. Before the aircraft struck the houses, it smashed into a potatoladen trailer truck, The- truck driver was taken to a Naval dispensary. Engine Failed Only the north side and rear walls of one house and the south side and rear walls of the other house were left standing. Minutes before the crash, the pilot had radioed that his port engine was cutting out and asked permission to land at the air station. As the aircraft approached, the engine failed completely and it went into a spin Scores of fire trucks poured thousands of gallons of foam on the houses in an attempt to put out the blaze and keep it from spreading. The Tondora family had moved into the neighbourhood recently. Neighbours did not know the names of the two babies. They estimated one was several weeks old and the other about 15 months. A third child, Barbara, was in school.