1959 Air Accident
A mid-air collision occurred over the lake during a United States Air Force exercise on the evening of 3 November 1959. A Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star simulated an enemy aircraft approaching from the east while ground-controlled interception directed Convair F-102 Delta Daggers of the 37th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron from Burlington International Airport to intercept it. One of the F-102s pressed a simulated firing run too close as the interception occurred over the lake, and the F-102 delta wing cut the tail off the T-33. The T-33 crew ejected successfully, but the rear seat crewman died landing in trees. The F-102 aircraft was discovered in Flagstaff Lake in 1976, but the pilot was never found.
Read more about this topic: Flagstaff Lake (Maine)
Famous quotes containing the words air and/or accident:
“Only the gaunt fierce bird
Flies, merciless with fear
Lest air hold him not,
Beats up the scaffold of space
Sick of the world’s rot
God’s hideous face.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“A sudden light transfigures a trivial thing, a weather-vane, a wind-mill, a winnowing flail, the dust in the barn door; a moment,—and the thing has vanished, because it was pure effect; but it leaves a relish behind it, a longing that the accident may happen again.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)