Hello Stangfan,
I saw a P-51 fly over today along with a B-17 (which made me look up info online, and thus finding your post) and it reminded me of the time I watched the P-51 crash approaching the Chatham airport. I grew up in Chatham, and my brother, father and I ran a boat repair business on Enterprise drive on top of the hill- which had a great view of everything approaching the airport. We used to watch the same P-51 fly over very often, and it would always fly over the airfield once and then land on the second approach. We could hear it from miles away, the sound of that rumbling old rolls royce engine. The day it crashed, we watched it fly over, but it never circled a second time with it's
gear down. We laughed at my father's "doom and gloom" attitude, but when we heard the sirens, we drove over to check it out. We showed up before the police, and at the same time as the fire department. The only thing left of the plane was the engine. He was an excellent pilot (you should have seen him fly!!!) and apparently (info heard second hand thru fellow pilots) he knew he was crashing and shut off the fuel supply before hitting ground as to cause minimal damage. The sound of that P-51 today brought all of those memories back.
Also, if your interested, my comments on other events listed from Soundbreaker Welch?:
1991 - Feb 9 - A 3 alarm fire destroyed the Acme Laundry complex on Route 28 in Chatham. The 75 year old 3 story wooden building was completely destroyed in the 0100 hours fire. 60 firefighters from several towns using 7 engines and 2 ladder trucks fought the fire.
*This was arson. The land was soon sold for real estate, and about 15 10mil dollar homes now reside on the property previously owned by ACME.
1993 - June 14 - One man was killed and another escaped when a plane crashed into the waters off the Chatham Lighthouse.
*This was Mr. Starr- a retired airline pilot. I used to work on his boats, and he took me flying in his plane a few times. He was out with a passenger (can't remember who) and passed low over his son-in-law's boat which was in the cut through just off the light house. The wing tip hit the water, and down they went. There was a lot of debate as to who was handling the plane at the time.
Cheers,
from a fellow Stang fan,
Matt