Plane crash exploration series first installment: Two plane crashes on Van Wyck Mountain in the southern Catskills.
Van Wyck is one of the Catskill 100 highest and a force to be reckoned with to it's steep, ominous, and rocky final approach to it's summit. We'll be bushwhacking to the summit of Van Wyck and exploring two separate plane crash sites along the way.
Approximate Distance: 7 miles
Approximate Gain: 1900'
Plane crash #1..........
The USAF T-33A training jet (tail number 55-4402) was just an hour out of Stewart Airfield on November 1st, 1962 when Lt.Colonel Carl Colson and Captain Russell Johansen perished when they lost control of the aircraft while they were practicing acrobatics during testing. The single engine jet was manufactured by Lockheed Martin in 1955.
On the first of November, 1962 Lt. Colonel Carl Colson and Captain Russel Johanson lost control of a T-33 trainer and crashed into the southern ridge of Van Wyck mountain in the Catskills. Both men died on impact. The wreckage of the jet still lies in the forest under a canopy of beech and birch trees.
