Airplane Crashes

With the close proximity to XXX, there have been a number of reported airplane crashes recorded in Licking County.

September 8th, 1942

Perhaps the most well known plane crash occurred on September 8th, 1942 when a B-25 bomber carrying passengers from Wright Field in Dayton to Mitchell field in New York, crashed into the corner of Hudson and Wyoming Streets in downtown Newark. All six men on the bomber were killed in the tragedy, including five soldiers and one civilian, as well as two Newark women caught in the debris. Mrs. Jane Irwin, 62, was killed when the plane hit the apartment house she owned on Hudson Street, and Mrs. Dollie Campbell, 73, died as she walked along the street near the crash after leaving Carroll's Department Store.

The pilot, Colonel Douglass Kilpatrick, was killed when he attempted to bail out of the plane, but due to the wet weather, his parachute failed to open and he fell through the roof of an office building at the corner of Clinton and Locust Streets. The co-pilot Second Lieutenant A.C. Lauver was also killed when he tried to bail out and he landed on the concrete loading platform of the fright office at the B&O Railroad Depot. The other men, Corporal Charles Watson, Private Russell Arens, Second Lieutenant Russell Mewlin and Ovido Picon were found amongst the wreckage.

The explosion scattered wreckage for more than half a block and the gasoline spilled quickly ignited to cause a large fire. It took more than 100 firemen and volunteers to put out the blaze. The incident is known as Ohio's worst military aviation accident. The cause of the crash has since been attributed to severe weather encountered en route. The crash time was 12:03 p.m..