50 Years Ago: Plane Crashes Into Tolland Home On The Fourth Of July

TOLLAND, CT — The events of the Fourth of July holiday a half-century ago in Tolland made this year's stormy weather look like, well, a picnic.

That's when an airplane made a thunderous crash into a local home.

According to the Tolland Fire Department archives, an airplane crashed into a house on Columbine Road on July 4, 1973. Three men were killed and the house was badly damaged, fire officials said.

Photos taken by the TFD's official photographer, Ellery Kington, show the plane's tail section sticking out from the home's roof and the wings folded in an upward position.

Firefighters are depicted on the roof and the front lawn surveying the damage.

The home was unoccupied, officials said.

According to an account of the crash on New England Aviation History.com, the Piper Cherokee with a father and his two sons on board took off from Orange County, NY on a flight to Hopedale Airport in Massachusetts.

Shortly after 6 p.m. the plane crashed into the home in Tolland, according to the New England Aviation History.com account.

The plane did not catch fire, and a witnesses said that the plane had suddenly appeared from low cloud cover and hit a tree first and then the home, according to the New England Aviation History.com posting. Police and firefighters had trouble reaching the scene due to rubberneckers stopped in the nearby roads, according to the account.