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Rattlesnake Gal · 08-28-2013, 10:59 AM

Tragedy on the Mountain

34 years ago (6/18/72) a small plane (Piper) crashed into the eastern slope of Mt Belknap a few hundred yds below the summit. It landed on a steep, heavily wooded slope - the plane disintegrated and the pilot was killed. The plane's remains still lie on the slope - a crude, steep path leads from the summit to the crash site (about .1 mi long). This photo doesn't do justice to the real steepness and extremely rocky roughness of the crash site - it is part of an old rockfall, now covered with trees that have grown up through the rubble. You can see part of the plane wreck near the center of the photo, some distance below the spot from which the photo was taken. Mysteriously, the plane wasn't discovered until 6/3/73, a year later - one wonders what took so long.

Plane Crash Wings

These twisted remains appear to be all that is left of the wings, and perhaps a small part of the fuselage. Most of the fuselage seems to have been rendered into tiny pieces - perhaps there was an explosion after the crash, or maybe it simply disintegrated upon impact on the rock-strewn, ledgy site. Note the remnants of the seats hung in the branches of the tree to the left.

Plane Crash - Engine

Here we see the engine, apparently 4-cylinders, which lies close to what's left of the fuselage and the wings.

Lin's response:

Hi dcr, these are neat artifact photos. Amazing no one ever carried that stuff out. Years ago while hiking Saddle Hill across the river from our house, I tripped on something. What I tripped on was a fusalage line attached to metal. Then we noticed several small pieces of a plane scattered throughout the terrain. We asked some older folks about it and found out it had been a small military plane and private plane collided during WWII over a passenger train headed for Boston killing all aboard the planes. Funny the historical items and facts you can find in the woods off of trails.

Plane Crash - Tail Section - Elevator

Here we see the horizontal, or elevator, section of the tail, which lies separate from, but close to, the vertical or rudder section.

08-28-2013, 10:59 AM	#8
Rattlesnake Gal Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Central NH Posts: 5,252 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 1,447 Thanked 1,349 Times in 475 Posts	Forum Member dcr's Information about this Crash Tragedy on the Mountain 34 years ago (6/18/72) a small plane (Piper) crashed into the eastern slope of Mt Belknap a few hundred yds below the summit. It landed on a steep, heavily wooded slope - the plane disintegrated and the pilot was killed. The plane's remains still lie on the slope - a crude, steep path leads from the summit to the crash site (about .1 mi long). This photo doesn't do justice to the real steepness and extremely rocky roughness of the crash site - it is part of an old rockfall, now covered with trees that have grown up through the rubble. You can see part of the plane wreck near the center of the photo, some distance below the spot from which the photo was taken. Mysteriously, the plane wasn't discovered until 6/3/73, a year later - one wonders what took so long. Plane Crash Wings These twisted remains appear to be all that is left of the wings, and perhaps a small part of the fuselage. Most of the fuselage seems to have been rendered into tiny pieces - perhaps there was an explosion after the crash, or maybe it simply disintegrated upon impact on the rock-strewn, ledgy site. Note the remnants of the seats hung in the branches of the tree to the left. Plane Crash - Engine Here we see the engine, apparently 4-cylinders, which lies close to what's left of the fuselage and the wings. Lin's response: Hi dcr, these are neat artifact photos. Amazing no one ever carried that stuff out. Years ago while hiking Saddle Hill across the river from our house, I tripped on something. What I tripped on was a fusalage line attached to metal. Then we noticed several small pieces of a plane scattered throughout the terrain. We asked some older folks about it and found out it had been a small military plane and private plane collided during WWII over a passenger train headed for Boston killing all aboard the planes. Funny the historical items and facts you can find in the woods off of trails. Plane Crash - Tail Section - Elevator Here we see the horizontal, or elevator, section of the tail, which lies separate from, but close to, the vertical or rudder section.