The Lucile M. Wright Air Museum in Jamestown is getting ready to open an exhibit commemorating the 75th anniversary of the crash of Continental Charters Flight 44-2 and the historic events that followed. The exhibit features a timeline of the December 29, 1951 flight scheduled from Miami to Pittsburgh and Buffalo, to its tragic end on Bucktooth Ridge in the Town of Napoli, along with photographs, maps, interviews, and artifacts from the crash. The exhibit also memorializes the victims of the crash and honors the bravery of the survivors and rescuers with a display called "Salute to Rescuers," featuring photographs of the police officers, firefighters, farmers and local citizens who participated in the historic effort to get survivors and casualties off the ridge.
As part of the commemoration, the Wright Museum has commissioned Stacey Mrva of Ironwood Studios in Springwater, New York to create a sculpture of a C-46 (pictured above), the aircraft that crashed on Bucktooth Ridge. The sculpture, with a six-foot wingspan, includes artifacts collected from the debris field over the past 75 years. Mrva will also attend the opening.
The exhibit includes two short videos. One features Tim Lake -- author of Hang on and Fly, the authoritative book on Flight 44-2 -- and the other is an interview with the late Pearl Moon, a stewardess who survived the crash and spoke about it decades later.
The grand opening of the exhibit is scheduled for Saturday, October 17th from 1:00-3:00 PM; the exhibit is permanent and will be available for viewing whenever the museum is open. The Lucile M. Wright Air Museum is located on the first floor of the Hotel Jamestown Building at the corner of West 3rd Street and Cherry Street. More information is available on the museum's website, or by e-mailing [email protected].
