Q: There was another plane crash on Interstate 285, sometime in either the late 1960s or early 1970s. It was said somebody put the wrong fuel in the plane. Can you fill us in on the details of that crash?
—Tom Brayton, Sharpsburg
A: The recent deadly plane crash on I-285 might have brought back memories for many long-time Atlantans of a similar accident 45 years ago.
Six people were killed when a chartered plane carrying 29 passengers and four crew members hit the side of the Moreland Avenue Bridge at I-285 on May 30, 1970.
Like last month’s crash, the plane took off from DeKalb-Peachtree Airport and was in the air for only moments when it dropped to earth and skidded along 285 for one-half mile before slamming into the bridge.
But unlike last month’s crash that killed the four people — Greg, Phillip and Christopher Byrd, and Jackie Kulzer, Christopher’s fiancée – in the plane, the 1970 accident killed five people on the ground.
Four members of the same family and a family friend died when the propeller-driven Martin 404 hit their car.
One person on the plane was killed and 30 were injured, with many suffering only minor injuries.
Then-DeKalb County Police Chief Dick Hand told the Associated Press: “(Witnesses) said the plane struck the car almost at the exact moment it touched down.”
It then “careened down the highway, spun in a half circle and skidded backwards.”
Mark Schienfeld, a passenger on the plane, told the AP: “We jumped out through the hole in the back. I walked out and saw some people lying on the ground … some of them couldn’t get up.”
The weather was foggy and rainy that day in 1970, but those conditions didn’t cause the accident.
The National Transportation Safety Board found that the plane, which was carrying real estate investors from Lehigh Acres Development who were returning to Fort Myers, Fla., had been filled with the wrong fuel.
The plane was carrying 200 gallons of Jet Grade A fuel instead of the required 100 octane fuel.
Lacking proper fuel, both engines quickly lost power and the plane went down.
The plane’s first officer observed the fueling by “relatively untrained personnel” and the pilot signed the fuel voucher, the NTSB wrote.
The NTSB is still investigating the cause of last month’s crash.
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