MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Saturday, April 27, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A02
The George Washington Bridge has been the scene of many suicides, accidents, and odd happenings during its 60-year history. But even after a quarter-century, what happened on Dec. 26, 1965, stuns the imagination.
A teenage pilot landed a plane on the center roadway of the bridge maneuvering the light aircraft through the lowest point of the suspension cables at the center of the span. Phillip Ippolito Jr. said afterward that he was “just plain scared” he wasn’t going to make it.
Ippolito, 19, of the Bronx and Joseph Brennan, 39, of Hackensack took off in the two-seat airplane about 9 a.m. from the Ramapo Valley Airport in Spring Valley., N.Y., where Ippolito was an assistant mechanic.
“Joe was just along for the ride to Red Bank, where I planned to visit with a former flying instructor, and at the same time log some flying time,” the young pilot told a reporter a day after the emergency landing.
As he flew over, Ippolito said, everything was just fine, Brennan was enjoying the view, and traffic on the bridge was quite light possibly because it was a Sunday morning, and the day after Christmas.
Then it happened.
“Just as we were at a point parallel to Times Square, I felt the plane begin to lose power,” Ippolito said. “I banked 180 degrees to the right to head north again. At this point I had no definite plan in mind, I was just plain scared. Then I began thinking of ditching in the river, but there were whitecaps on the water and that meant it would be rough landing. “
When he asked Brennan if he could swim, the Navy veteran of World War II said not only could he not, but he was terrified of water. At that point, Ippolito said, there was just one thing to do land the plane on the bridge.
“As I came over the roadway, I did a left-side slip and after 50 feet I went into a forward slip,” Ippolito said. “This brought the plane directly over the unused roadway, but my flying speed was almost double the normal 40 to 45 mile-an-hour landing speed. I kept worrying about the people on the bridge up until the moment I hit the roadway.”
The plane rolled along the roadway and came to a stop. Although its right wing tip struck a truck and the plane was spun around, Ippolito and Brennan suffered only minor injuries.
Bridge manager Ken Philmus said the current flow of traffic, and the increased volume of traffic, would make it difficult for such a landing to take place today.
Brennan died at age 60 in February 1987. Ippolito’s whereabouts are unknown. Bridge employees who came to the aid of the plane have long since retired or moved on to other careers,
Even Ramapo Valley Airport, where the fateful flight began, is no more, having been turned into an office park.
Keywords: FORT LEE; BRIDGE; AVIATION; ACCIDENT; HISTORY
Caption: 1965 PHOTO – Police preparing to remove the downed aircraft from the bridge.
ID: 17341242 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
Leave a Reply