Air Transportation
Updated 12/29/2023
Air Transportation isn't exactly an expansive topic in relation to Auburn, Pennsylvania. Auburn never had an airport, helipad or even a catapult. So why should the topic even be included in the Auburn Area Historical Society's website? Well, Auburn has had a few incidents which involved air transporta-tion, so we needed someplace to record those events.
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Auburn's amateur historian Kermit Mengel (now deceased) recalled an incident in which he stated that he was attending class in the early 1900s at the Pine Street Grammar School when he witnessed the Goodyear Blimp as it flew over Auburn. While this story has not been verified by a second source, the incident would have been thrilling to children of that era.
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Decades after Kermit Mengel claimed he had witnessed the Goodyear Blimp fly over Auburn (see above), he quite possibly witnessed this rare event again on Sunday, May 10, 1981 when the Call newspaper reported the Goodyear Blimp flew over southern Schuylkill County and landed at the Reneer manufacturing plant located just east of Auburn, PA. The blimp was part of the festivities planned for a celebration at the plant.
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There's an exception to every rule - Without an airport, airplanes don't normally land in the town of Auburn, but this one decided to make an exception. The plane was attempting an emergency landing when it hit an obstruction and flipped upside down. An event such as this presented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for residents to pose with this aeronautical oddity. As for the pilot, his trip in the airplane ironically named "Dream Boat" turned into a nightmare instead.
"Fliers Unhurt as Stunting Plane Crashes At Auburn" - Harry Williamson, 25, of Harrisburg, formerly a Frackville Air corps pilot, and Hubert Garrison, 22, of Hershey, R. D. 1, a student pilot, escaped without injury last Saturday afternoon about 1:45 p.m. when their plane struck a 35-foot telephone pole at Auburn. The plane somersaulted into a vacant lot near a grove where a picnic was in progress. Williamson told state police that he and Garrison were on a training flight from the Palmyra airport and were practicing acrobatic maneuvers. He stated that the motor began to splutter and he sought a place to land. The plane was a two-seater Stearman, a training plane used by the Army Air Force during the war. According to Richard Moyer, 21, of Auburn, the left wing tip struck the ground and then hit the pole, carrying the lines of both the telephone company and the P. P. and L. Co. After striking the pole, shearing off an 18 foot section from the top, the plane crashed to the ground and somesaulted (somersaulted) across the vacant lot owned by Harry Brommer and to the vacant lot owned by Mr. and Mrs. Guy Steffy. Mr. and Mrs. Steffy reside in a house on the east side of the lot. The plane came to rest on its back 131 feet from the point where it struck the pole. The broken section of the plane was carried 120 feet by the plane. Part of the force of the planes impact was broken by four small cherry trees which it struck after hitting the ground. Parts of the trees were carried along with the plane. The plane was badly damaged on the side that struck the pole. The wind was crumpled, the landing gear broken and the propellor (propeller) and motor twisted. On Wednesday, Pfc. S. B. Kramer, Reading state police, before Alderman Kalbach, Pottsville, lodged information for the arrest of Mr. Williamson on a charge of reckless operating of his bi-plane." - The Call newspaper, Schuylkill Haven, PA Friday, September 3, 1948.
************************************* "Plane Lands Upside Down But Passengers Uninjured - A former Frackville Air Corps pilot and a student pilot escaped injury Saturday afternoon when their Army trainer-type plane struck a 35-foot telephone pole at Auburn and landed upside down in an empty lot adjacent to a grove where a picnic was in progress...the plane crashed to the ground and somersaulted across the vacant lot owned by Harry Broomer (Brommer) and to the vacant lot owned by Mr. and Mrs. Guy Steffy, who reside in a house on the east side of the lot. The plane came to rest on its back 131 feet from the point when it struck the pole. The broken section of the plane was carried 120 feet by the plane. Part of the force of the plane's impact was broken by four small cherry trees which it struck after hitting the ground. Parts of the trees were carried along with the plane. Moyer, son of Mrs. Guy Steffy, who was working in his father's field at the time of the accident, said the plane missed the chimney of his home by only two feet. A coon-hound dog owned by Joseph Broomer (Brommer), which was in the field with Moyer at the time, narrowly escaped being hit by the plane. The plane did not appear to be extensively damaged in the mishap, Pvt. Kramer, of the Reading Detail of State Police, and a representative of the Civil Aeronautics Administration investigated. They said the plane's engine would be examined to determine if engine trouble developed prior to the crash. Williamson, who flew P-51's and served as a transition instructor in the Army Air corps, has more than 1200 flying hours to his credit." |
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DEADLY AIRPLANE CRASH - Several years prior, a source mentioned a deadly airplane crash against the "mountain" southwest of Auburn. According to the story, a small plane was traveling south (possibly toward the Reading Airport) when it failed to clear the protruding hillside and slammed into a densely wooded area, killing anyone aboard. Efforts to retrieve the human remains were greatly hampered by the steep and rugged terrain. No attempt to recover the airplane wreckage was made due to the difficulty in accessing the area. Although this currently is an "unsubstantiated" report, the source was credible and the events are certainly possible. If anyone has further information on this subject, please contact the A.A.H.S. in order that we might provide further detailed information regarding this occurrence by using the "Visitors Input" button below.
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UFO Sighting near Auburn - Mrs. George Binner of Auburn, Pennsylvania, reported witnessing an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) flying over Route 895 east of Auburn around 2:00 p.m. on March 10, 1967. The vessel was described as being shaped "something like a football with tapered ends". Mrs. Binner stated the dimensions as being about the diameter of the "road's width" and approx. three to four feet "thick" (high). She mentioned the vessel was colored "Nile green" and had a series of "chrome-like bands" extending around its exterior. According to her, the UFO flew at tree-top level and crossed the road approx. one-half block ahead of her car, then proceeded northwesterly in the direction of St. Clair.
While this site will not post an opinion on the validity of this incident, the existence of UFOs, or Mrs. George Binner's claim other than to state that many reputable scientists believe that there is a strong statistical probability of life existing elsewhere in the universe, the Reading Eagle newspaper did report and publish the news article. The incident occurred in the mid-1960s during a "rash" (increase) of reports of UFO sightings. Skeptics of UFO sighting attribute the incidents to "mistaken" identifications of normal flying vessels (airplanes, blimps, etc.), imaginative delusions or even "mass hysteria". Proponents of UFO sightings claim the statistical odds make chances of intelligent life existing elsewhere in the universe highly probable and point out that UFO sightings have been documented for centuries and would show a "spike" in sightings if, in fact, more UFOs were coincidentally present that particular decade. Interestingly enough, Mrs. Binner was not alone in her sighting of an UFO. A news article published that same month mentions five other people who witnessed an unidentifiable flying object in the vicinity of Auburn around the same period of time that Mrs. Binner had her sighting. Whether Mrs. George Binner observed a vessel operated by extraterrestrial life is left open for debate. What is a certainty is that if she did in fact witness such a vessel, this event would qualify as the most unique "air transportation" incident in Auburn's history. |
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