An Exciting Flight

          I have been watching the Little League World Series from Williamsport. It included a major league baseball game between the Phillies and the Nationals.  The two teams flew into the Williamsport airport for the special game.   This brought back to me very interesting memories from 1959.

          It was back on December 1, 1959, when an airliner trying to land there in bad weather flew into a mountain and all but one passenger was killed.  The airport was surrounded by mountains which made flying there somewhat dangerous.

          A few months after that tragic accident, I was a student at Susquehanna University and was working as the official NCAA statistician for the school's football and basketball teams.  I traveled with the teams to all of their games.  The university decided that the football team would actually fly to several of the football games in New England.  Now at that time I had never flown in an airliner so I was very excited about the experience.  However, my first trip was one I will never forget.

          After we had taken off from Williamsport, the cockpit received a signal that the luggage compartment was unlocked. I had a vision of our footballs and equipment being scattered all over Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.  But the crew felt it was safe to continue and they did.  Fortunately, we landed safely with all of our equipment.

          But then, following the game, we headed back home to Williamsport which happened to be fogged in.  It brought memories of the previous tragic accident there. We circled for nearly an hour but it did not clear.  The recent accident and the mountains surrounding the airport made our situation rather scarry. But what we didn't know was that the pilots had decided to head instead for another airport. 

          Time passed very slowly and suddenly we began to descend.  I was sitting next to a window. I could see the fog clear and then all I could see was a large body of water. We were headed directly for it.  I think my heart just about stopped and then we hit a runway and we landed safely.  I still feel that relief today.

          What had happened was the pilot changed course to Harrisburg.  But we didn't land at the newer airport in Middletown but at the old one in New Cumberland.  Its runway was just over the Susquehanna River and you had to fly over the river to land.  Thank the Lord, we were safe.  Buses took us back to Selinsgrove.

          That was a very memorable trip.  Fortunately, it did not scare me enough to keep me from flying. Thankfully, since then I have taken several dozen plane trips all over the country for work and for pleasure.  I have enjoyed most of them and now miss taking them because of my physical limitations.  And I do thank the Lord for His protection as I've traveled.  And there have not been any river rescues necessary.