Rentschler Field Accident | New England Aviation History

Rentschler Field – May 3, 1944

May 28, 2018

Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Connecticut – May 3, 1944

Updated February 2, 2022.

B-24 Liberator
U.S. Air Force Photo

On the night of May 3, 1944, a B-24 Liberator with a crew of eleven men aboard, took off from Westover Field in Chicopee, Massachusetts, for a night cross-country navigation training flight.

While over New York, the number three engine lost power so the pilot turned the plane back towards Westover. Before long another engine lost power and the plane was rapidly loosing altitude, so the pilot decided to make an emergency landing at Rentschler Field. Then it was discovered that there was a problem with the landing gear. The nose wheel had to be cranked down manually, but it couldn’t be locked in place.

The plane landed on the main wheels with the nose kept high, but when the nose wheel touched down it collapsed and the front of the aircraft hit the ground and was crushed as the nose dug in, killing the pilot, 2nd Lt. John W. Garrett, age 19, and injuring four members of the crew. The other six escaped without injury.

Lt. Garrett is buried in Green Mountain Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. To see a photograph of Lt. Garrett click here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114672261/john-work-garrett

Sources:

Springfield Union, “Westover Pilot Is Killed In East Hartford Crash”, May 4, 1944

www.findagrave.com

Book, “Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents In The United States, 1941-1954”, by Anthony J. Mireles, C. 2006.

Marlborough, CT – April 10, 1933

August 13, 2015

Marlborough, Connecticut – April 10, 1933

Rentschler Field was an airfield that opened in East Hartford, Connecticut, in 1931, and remained active into the 1990s. It was named for Frederick Brant Rentschler who established the aviation division at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft of East Hartford. Today the Pratt & Whitney (football) Stadium at Rentschler Field occupies the site.

On April 10, 1933, Lieutenant Harold Fairchild, 24, took off from Rentschler Field for a test flight of a new aircraft. Lt. Fairchild received his flight training through the army at Kelly Field in Texas. He then went on to advanced training and received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant. A month later he joined the Aeronautical Research Department of Pratt & Whitney as a test pilot. The purpose of this flight was to test the altitude limits of the aircraft.

It was well known at the time that a pilot needs supplemental oxygen when flying above 10,000 feet. When Fairchild reached an altitude of 35, 000 feet, it was believed that his oxygen system either ran dry or failed, causing him to loose consciousness. The plane plummeted nose first out of the sky and crashed on a farm belonging to John Rankl in Marlborough, Connecticut, a town southeast of East Hartford.

Lieutenant Fairchild was born in Pelham, New York, and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1921.

Sources:

New York Times, “Lieut. Fairchild Dies In Connecticut Crash”, April 11, 1933

Historic Pelham, http://historicpelhamblogspot.com “Two Pelham Brothers Lost Thei Only Sons In Eerily-Similar Early Aviation Incidents”, June 11, 2015

Wikipedia