Bennington, Vermont – August 9, 1939

     At about 6:45 p.m. on the evening of August 9, 1939, residents of the “Chapel District”, a hamlet in the Bennington area, heard an unidentified airplane with its motor sputtering come out of the northwest after a heavy shower.  Witnesses said the plane was flying low, and then its motor died.  The aircraft was moving in the direction of Bald Mountain and it was felt that it was too low to clear the mountain, and was presumed to have crashed.

     Authorities were notified and a search was instituted, but nothing was found.  

     It was later learned that residents of Brattleboro, Vermont, heard an unidentified airplane pass over their community around 7:00 p.m., and it was estimated that it would take an airplane fifteen minutes to fly from Bennington to Brattleboro, a distance of about 40 miles.   This information led authorities to doubt that a plane had crashed on Bald Mountain. 

     However, it was never confirmed that the airplane that passed over Bennington was the same one that passed over Brattleboro.   

     Source:  The Nashua Telegraph, “Doubt Tale, Plane Crash On Bald Mt.”, August 10, 1939