A United Airlines DC4 Crashes At LaGuardia Field May 29, 1947

A United Airlines DC4 airliner crashed soon after attempting to abort a takeoff at LaGuardia Airport the day before Memorial Day in 1947. On the plane included a former lieutenant on his way to wed his fiancee in Cleveland. There was also a young woman destined to visit her parents who had an important job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The plane's pilot Captain Lucky Baldwin tried to stop the plane from taking off while on his way down the runway. He had received word of impending wind gusts and had applied his brakes. Baldwin also instructed his co-pilot to shut down the power on the DC4. Too late, however. The plane went into a ditch and erupted into flames after it had crossed the Grand Central Parkway and crashed into a fence. One of its wings impacted an obstruction that led to the fire and the airliner going completely out of control.