**************************************************************** Minneapolis Blue Angel Crash Memorial Day 1957 An interesting thing came up recently. A High School buddy of mine and his wife live in Rochester, New York. She posted in facebook that the Air Force's Thunderbirds, the elite jet fighter exhibition group, was going to perform over Rochester and fly right over their neighborhood. This reminded me of something I hadn't thought about alot for years but still vividly remember from my childhood. The Navy's Blue Angels performed once right over my neighborhood, Northeast Minneapolis, when I was a kid and had a fatal accident and crashes, some of this I witnessed MYSELF. I saw the collision, I didn't see the actual crash (hitting the ground) but did see one of the crash scenes shortly after. I tried to research this a few years ago on the web but found virtually nothing about it. I tried again a few days ago and did find some more. Mainly a website about 4 crashes in Minneapolis in the 1950s and a newspaper article from the time in the Minneapolis Star (see links below). A few years ago, I was talking with an older friend who remembered this as well. Lower "Nordeast" was populated by a lot of immigrant families from Central and Eastern Europe who arrived anytime from just before WWI through just after WWII. (One friend of mine told me he only spoke Ukrainian until he started in kindergarten). Anyway, there was a large Russian-American population. The Czar had even donated the church bells for the Russian Orthodox Church. That church owns a big cemetary a few blocks from my house and had invited the Navy Blue Angels to perform over it as part of their Memorial Day Celebration. I suppose these were "good" American Russians not those "bad" Red "Commie" (Communist) Russians we were at odds with at the time during the Cold War. Anyway the Blue Angels agreed to perform for them. My friend thought this was in 1959 - I thought it could even have been in 1960. But evidently it was in 1957. **************************************************************** Anyway, I found this website listing four crashes in Minneapolis: Remembering the Twin Cities’ four aviation disasters in the 1950s https://www.minnpost.com/stroll/2016/08/remembering-twin-cities-four-aviation-disasters-1950s/ Three don't sound like what I remember at all but this one does: "Incredibly, yet a third military aviation disaster occurred less than a year after that, on Memorial Day in 1957 in Northeast Minneapolis. Two Navy planes collided in midair, killing one pilot and setting four houses ablaze near Sunset Memorial Cemetery. ... Of the three military aviation disasters recounted here, only the final one has a dedicated memorial. On the Tower of Memories at Sunset Memorial Cemetery, near the site of the disaster, there’s a plaque commemorating Cmdr. Newell Franklin Olson of the United States Navy, the serviceman who was killed on that Memorial Day in 1957." **************************************************************** I saw this accident. I remember I was standing with a neighbor kid, friend, on 32nd Avenue between Benjamin and Cleveland Streets - actually between Benjamin and the alley - closer to the alley than Benjamin. There are a lot of trees in Minneapolis but there is a gap looking west on 32nd Avenue due to the street itself. The planes flew over and I saw two of them sort of click or bump each other and then VERY shortly after, a parachute popped out from one of them. "Whoa! did you see that!" and I went running home - "Dad! Dad!" and I recounted what I'd seen. My older brother says I was VERY excited. I can imagine! I can still picture my Dad standing there in a tank top, sleeveless undershirt, the way he used to dress around the house on his days off, attentively listening to what I was telling him. TV Channel WTCN 11 used to have a short 5 minute news broadcast at 11:55 everyday - just a card with a voice over announcer reading a few headlines. We anxiously waited for and listened to that. My memory is that they did mention it briefly by the end. **************************************************************** My older friend and the news article mentioned that the crash almost killed a 2 year-old in a stroller in his back yard and a near miss of some kids playing in their neighbor's yard next door. Also that it just missed the N.E. Atheltic Field where some families were watching their kids playing softball. The pilot who died was evidently trying to make it to the Mississippi to avoid hitting houses and people. He didn't make it. There were no other fatalities but 9 people were hurt, 5 of which were hospitalized with burns. Several were children. This could have been a LOT worse. **************************************************************** I have a second, early memory which I didn't remember as being part of this but in retrospect it must have been - since there weren't all that many crashes in Northeast back then. I remember there was a crash in Northeast and my Dad took us down to look at it. There was big crowd and my Dad picked me up and put me up on his shoulders to see over them (I must have been pretty small at the time) and he asked me "what can you see?". My memory is that one house was pretty well flattened and two or three others damaged. There was debris on their front lawns. There was a sort of nose-cone shaped object, like for a propeller - sort of a rounded conical shape - sitting on the ground pointing straight up. I think I remember that because it seemed intact - everything else was badly mangled. I don't know what it was, this was a jet not a propeller plane, but that's what I remember. One of the crash sites was at 1946 Pierce Street. I'm sure that must be the one I saw. There's a picture of it in a link below. **************************************************************** What amazes me most about all this is that on Memorial Day 1957, I was only 4 1/2 years old - I wasn't even in kindergarten yet - and yet I remember this all VERY WELL. I didn't think I remembered ANYTHING from when I was 4 years old. This must have been very traumatic to me at the time. It certainly made a VERY lasting impression on me. I always remembered this, but I thought I was older - 7 or 8 at the time. I'm surprised I would have only been 4. Thinking about this has dredged up a lot of painful early memories - as if there's some repressed trauma about this or something. After all I did see someone die - (I knew very shortly after that it had been a fatal crash) - and the crash scene was pretty gruesome - and that could have been our house. Kinda heavy for a four year old to absorb, I think. I assume it must have affected my personality and outlook on life - but I'm not sure how. I'll have to think about this some more. Weird to think something that long ago could still affect me. I don't think about this very often but it's not that far below the surface to me even now. **************************************************************** Clipped From The Minneapolis Star newspaper - May 31, 1957 'Miracle on Pierce Street'; Only One Dead https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13935157/the_minneapolis_star/ **************************************************************** Other websites: Minneapolis, MN Navy Planes Collide, May 1957 http://www.gendisasters.com/minnesota/18149/minneapolis-mn-navy-planes-collide-may-1957 1957 Navy Jet Plane Crash Photo Minneapolis MN https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/h-1957-navy-jet-plane-crash-photo-minneapolis Memorial day air crash 1957 http://www.physicstramp.com/university/memorial-day-air-crash-1957-1/ New York Times MINNEAPOLIS, May 30 (UP)--Two Navy jet fighters collided while flying a Memorial Day salute today and one crashed into a row of houses. The pilot was killed and eleven persons were injured. https://www.nytimes.com/1957/05/31/archives/one-dies-11-hurt-as-jets-collide-in-minneapolis-salute.html **************************************************************** If you know anything about this please let me know. (I would never quote anybody by name without their permission). When my friend mentioned about the airshow over Rochester I thought - how totally irresponsible of the Air Force to do this. To the best of my knowledge, Minneapolis has NEVER allowed airshow type performances over the city since 1957. ..........