The day the jet crashed in Windsor Farms
Ensign Robert Ammann of Dallas, Texas, was on training maneuvers in his jet based at Oceana Naval Air Station, near Norfolk, with a fellow pilot in another aircraft. An accident sent one of the jets crashing into Windsor Farms.
Ensign Robert Ammann of Dallas, Texas, was on training maneuvers in his jet based at Oceana Naval Air Station, near Norfolk, with a fellow pilot in another aircraft. Traveling at 300 miles an hour, the two jets were flying about 20 miles northwest of the airport in Richmond, when the tail of Ammann’s jet was hit by the wing of the other craft. Ammann tried to regain control, realized he couldn’t, and parachuted out. He landed safely in front of a residence of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis D. Gooch at 401 Bancroft Avenue in Highland Park.
The Banshee continued in a southwest direction until it went into a spin. Neon-sign cleaners in the 3300 block of West Broad Street told the News Leader that they saw the plane tumble wing over wing and turn into a ball of fire, making a humming and roaring sound. A fuel tank landed at Colonial and Idlewood avenues, and a hunk of canopy and the bucket seat plummeted through the sun-porch roof of 3 Canterbury Road. […]
The Banshee burrowed a foot-deep ditch across the driveway of 105 Tonbridge Road, spewing fire and plowing toward the house.
You can listen to Alden Aaroe’s radio report from December 7, 1955.
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