Park Slope Air Crash Tribute Video Depicts Burning Boy in Odd Re-Enactment of Tragedy

THE U.S. AIRWAYS jet that ditched in the Hudson River last week has been brought out of the icy waters off Battery Park City. The pilot and crew, along with some intrepid ferryboat operators and others, have been hailed as heroes for saving all the passengers from what would have otherwise been a mass casualty event.

While following the news developments of the crash, I was poking around online to find some basic information about the massive mid-air collision over Staten Island in 1960, which sent one plane toward Park Slope in Brooklyn. In all 134 people died including six people on the ground. When United Flight 826 initially crashed into a block of brownstones apartments in the vicinity of 7th Avenue and Sterling Place, very close to Flatbush Avenue, first responders did not know that a plane had crashed. It had seemed as if there was an explosion. Then the tail section was discovered in the middle of the burning rubble of Park Slope.

Poking around YouTube for some news clips of the 1960 air disaster, I came across a tribute video dedicated to the boy on the United flight who survived the crash but then died at the hospital the next day. It's an interesting video to say the least, complete with a pseudo re-enactment of the boy -- burning no less -- crashing into the snow. While the air disaster is certainly scary enough -- considering what could have happened if the U.S. Airways flight had crashed somewhere in the Bronx or Manhattan -- this video tribute is a bit creepy. Watch for yourself ...