Montoursville Plane Crash, 1936

 

On May 23rd 1936, a plane carrying 3 men crashed in Montoursville.  Only one man made it out  alive.

The privately owned Waco plane had left Scranton Airport at 3:45, heading to Sunbury Pa.

A fourth man, aviator, weather observer, and airport employee, Mark Richards had expected to be on the flight.  However, while Richards was finishing up a weather observation, the three men took off without him.

"However, Fullweiller, it was said, 'gave it the gun' and the ship swooped into the air without Richards."

Forty minutes later, the privately owned plane was approaching the Williamsport Municipal Airport [located in Montoursville].  The plane was flying low, and tore the top off of a tree.  It then "ricocheted, struck a light standard, and crumpled into the street.  The explosion occurred almost at once and was followed so swiftly by fire that rescue attempts were impossible." 

Although  fireman arrived within minutes, there as nothing they could do to half the flames.  They did succeed in preventing the fire from spreading to nearby buildings.

The plane was owned by Garret, a student pilot, and well known trucker in the firm of Garret and Kovach Garage.  A month prior, he had been in a "minor crackup" with a Taylor Cub plane he owned. The week before the accident in Montoursville, he had traded the cub in for the Waco the men were in that day.  Garret had 50 hours flying experience, but did not yet have his license.

Fullweiler was a former Army pilot, and a licensed private pilot.  He was a district manager for the Mack Truck Company in Scranton.  In 1923, he was the leading pitcher in the NYP league, playing for the Williamsport Grays.  He was buried in Mt Carmel Cemetery [Wildwood] Williamsport Pa.

 Michael Kovach of Scranton, the lone survivor, crawled though the cabin door of the plane just before an explosion "shook the ship and flames consumed all combustible portions of it."

Garret & Fulweiler were trapped inside the plane at the time of the explosion.

   

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Mr & Mrs Diehl of Danville Witnessed the Crash

Kovach died in 1978, age 73

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Funeral services were held in Williamsport, Pa., Monday for a former Daytonian, Harlold J. Fulwiler, 39 years old, one of two persons killed in an airplane crash in Montoursville, Pa., near Williamsport, late Saturday night. His father Samuel Fulwiler, and two brothers, Ellis and Albert Fulwiler, all of Dayton, attended the services. Burial also was in Williamsport.

A native of Dayton, Fulwiler lived at Scranton, Pa., where he was district manager for the Mack Truck company at the time of his death. He attended Steele High School, when he lived in Dayton, and afterwards played with several semi-pro baseball teams. Later he went to Grand Rapids, Mich., and then to a team in the New York-Pennsylvania league

He served 11 years in the regular army and was overseas in the World war in the infantry, later transferring to the air corps. He did little flying while in Dayton, but about a year ago began to fly private planes.

The ship which crashed was owned by Harold Garrett, Scranton, who with Fulwiler, was burned to death. A third man in the plane, Michael kovack, also of Scranton, climbed out, although badly injured, and unable to save his companions from the flames. Kovack said Garrett, a student pilot, was at the controls. It was no known whether motor trouble developed or whether the pilot's guide was too low. Whatever the cause, the plane stuck a tree in the center of Montoursville business district and crashed to the street, bursting into flames.

The former Daytonian is survived by the widow, three children, Ann (sic), 12 years old; Robert, 10 years old, and John Edward, 5 years old, of Scranton; his father and brothers, and an uncle, Charles J. Fulwiler, all of Dayton.

The Dayton Herald  · Dayton, Ohio  · Mon, May 25, 1936 · Page 9

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