LONDONDERRY — Newly discovered film footage will be featured in a presentation about New Hampshire’s deadliest air crash to be held at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire.
On Oct. 25, 1968, a Northeast Airlines passenger plane crashed near the top of South Peak on Moose Mountain. A total of 32 people died, but 10 survived the accident, which happened during the aircraft’s approach to Lebanon Municipal Airport.
To commemorate the recent 50th anniversary of the loss of Northeast Airlines Flight 946, the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire will sponsor a presentation about the accident on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 11 a.m. at the Aviation Museum, which is located at 27 Navigator Road, Londonderry.
Speakers will include Jeff Rapsis, executive director of the Aviation Museum and son of Capt. John A. Rapsis, pilot of Northeast Flight 946 and among those lost in the crash.
Rapsis will relate the story of the plane crash, its place in the changing aviation world of the 1960s, and its effect on his family.
Other speakers include Charlie Garipay of Hanover, who was among those who responded to the crash and aided in recovery efforts; and Barbara Clavette of Bowdoinham, Maine whose father, Earle Jewell, was among the survivors. (Jewell later died in 1976.)
The presentation will also include film footage taken by recovery workers at the crash site on Saturday, Oct. 26, 1968. The footage, provided to the museum by the Valley News of Lebanon, came to light only recently and has never been shown publicly.
The presentation will last about 90 minutes, and is included with regular museum admission of $5 per person; members of the Aviation Museum may attend free.
A similar program was given Oct. 13 at Lebanon Municipal Airport, followed by a hike to the location where the Northeast Airlines plane, a Fairchild-Hiller 227 turboprop on its way from Boston to Lebanon, crashed into ledges just below the summit while attempting to land.
“After our hike to the crash site, we heard from many people who couldn’t make it to Lebanon, but were still interested in the presentation,” said Rapsis, a longtime journalist who recently joined the Aviation Museum, which is based at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
“So we felt it was worth repeating our program at the museum, especially with the addition of film footage from the crash site that only recently came to light, and also because of others involved in it who are willing to contribute their stories.”
Rapsis said the museum will also display artifacts connected to the crash, including vintage newspapers with front-page coverage, and also pieces of the aircraft’s fuselage.
“We hope that the opportunity to pause and remember this accident will honor the memory of all those lost in the crash, and all those whose lives were changed by it,” he said.
Based in Boston, Northeast Airlines was considered New England’s hometown regional air carrier for several decades following World War II. It served many small communities in New Hampshire and offered popular “Yellowbird” flights to Florida. The airline merged with Delta in 1972.
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