Many of us weren’t even born yet in 1960, but most of us now know what disaster looks like when a plane smashes into a crowded neighborhood. Such was the case in Park Slope 50 years ago today, when a United Airlines flight came down on 7th Avenue and Sterling Place.

It was the deadliest air disaster at the time, killing 134 people. One boy survived, only to die the next morning. Of all the people who perished that day, Stephen Baltz puts a human face on the disaster. Please read these two wonderful articles….

“A Little Brother Remembers” appears today in the NY Times written by William Allen Baltz, Stephen’s brother.

In 2002, Wendell Jamieson wrote a piece for the Times called “The Day The Boy Fell From The Sky“. He writes of Stephen’s rescue and introduces us to the nurse who stayed with the boy in the hospital.