Long Island Sound – June 17, 1968

Long Island Sound – June 17, 1968

     At 2:30 a.m. on the morning of June 17, 1968, a Cessna 411 with two Connecticut men aboard left Fisher’s Island, N.Y., bound for Trumbull Airport in Groton, Connecticut.  (Today the airport is known as Groton-New London Airport.)  The weather consisted of heavy fog, with a cloud ceiling of 800 feet, and less than a mile of visibility.  

     The following morning, someone noticed the pilot’s private automobile still parked at Trumbull Airport and began to question his whereabouts.  It was subsequently learned that the aircraft he’d been piloting had never arrived from Fisher’s Island.  A large scale search involving Coast Guard vessels and aircraft was begun.   

     A woman living near the now defunct New London-Waterford Airport reported hearing a plane circling the area at about 3:00 a.m. 

     A resident of East Lyme, Connecticut, also reported hearing a low flying airplane. 

     Investigators theorized that the aircraft had been unable to land at Trumbull Airport due to deteriorating weather conditions, and the pilot had flown to Waterford to attempt a landing there.        

     The aircraft was finally located in forty feet of water off the New London shore, and was recovered on November 15, 1968.  

     Sources:

     New London Day, “Wide Search Is presses For 2 Groton Men, Plane”, June 19, 1968 

     National Transportation Safety Board report, NYC68A0137

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