Harvard crashes – Cape May, NJ, USA, 1970s

Hi all,

Probably a difficult (?) question. Anyone who knows about the identities of those T-6s ? Just for my records.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Benno

First crash was between Don Barrett (who survived) in SNJ-5 88-17301 N1046C and Ed Banta in AT-6D 121-41974 N1974M. The second accident involved (???) Snyder in SNJ-5 88-15007 N3626F and Victor Baker in AT-6D 88-17644 N5489V. Joe Quinn flew into the mess with SNJ-4 88-14088 N9735Z. Serial #s shamelessly extracted from Warbirds Directory Vol. 4!

T J

Harvard crashes – Cape May, NJ, USA, 1970s

Hi all,

Probably a difficult (?) question. Anyone who knows about the identities of those T-6s ? Just for my records.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Benno

There was a great character in John Tegler’s “Gentleman You Have a Race” who called himself a “professional race pilot”. All tongue in cheek of course, I think he was killed in that Cape May crash.

John

Thanks for the info, chaps. Bloody hell – certainly not a good day in anyone’s books!

The Cape May Air Races of June 1971 were a disaster for several reasons, not the least of which was the loss of four T-6/SNJ/Harvard aircraft and the damaging of another in mid-airs. The fist collision occurred going around a pylon and was the result of one aircraft’s wingtip being shoved through the canopy of another, which went down with fatal results for its pilot. The survivng pilot landed safely and was a man by the name of Snyder by my recollection.

The second incident involved a lawyer from Van Nuys, California (whose name I can never remember even though he and I negotiated at length once over possibly selling him my Temco Swift) another aircraft whose pilot I did not know, and a third aircraft pioted by Joseph “Jay” Quinn, a friend of mine and also chief instructor at the flight school where I got my first instructing job, when he wasn’t busy being an L.A. County fireman. The aforementioned lawyer pulled up under the second aircraft which promptly cut the tail off his aircraft. Both went in. Meanwhile, some of the wreckage from the collision hit Jay’s airplane in the canopy and probably disabled him as his airplane did several rolls into the ground. The name on the aircraft was “Charlie the Hacker” and had a picture of a robotic like figure weilding an ax that the brothers had copied off a picture of a WWI SE-5A.

Jay left behind a wife, Marlys and a small child, Joseph Jr. The three Quinn brothers and Pop Quinn, their father, were all firemen and well known and liked around San Fernando airport where they were based and where I was employed in my first instructing job. Pat Quinn, the youngest and wilder of the three brothers eventually stepped up to the plate and married Marlys, Jay’s widow, raisng Jay’s son as his own. When last I saw them over at their hangar on Santa Paula airport back in the early nineties, they were still very married.

The Hughes Air West DC-9 and Marine F-4 collided over the San Gabriel mountains just north and well east of Pasadena, California. (Pomona foothills?) I believe that the pilot ejected from the F-4 and the RIO rode it in but I may be wrong. I do know that in my last simulator instructor position I worked with a former Hughes Air West pilot named Dell Wienberger and that his flight attendant wife of only a few weeks was one of those who went down with that DC-9.

From another forum (regarding the crash of Spitfire rep. HB-YIZ), one member states that they saw “four (4) AT-6’s go down from an altitude of 300 feet in a pylon race, no one came back.”

Anyone know more about this?

Cape May Air Races June 1971. Two T-6s crashed when the group flew too close around a pylon, and one went straight in. The other might have made it with damage to the canopy. Then in all the confusion three more crashed on the back straight a couple of minutes later. All three got killed. Add to that the fatal crash of Bill Fornof in his Bearcat in Rhode Island the same day, and a mid-air between an F-4B and DC-9 the next day. Not the best weekend for promoting aviation! 🙁

T J