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61 years after Mpls. plane crash, 15 lives get honored
Star Tribune Article by: TOM MEERSMAN
Current and former neighbors, relatives of those who died, and others will be in south Minneapolis on Saturday when a memorial marker is unveiled.
The most deadly plane crash in Minneapolis history will be remembered Saturday afternoon with a marker dedication for 15 victims who died when a twin-propeller plane crashed into a south Minneapolis home on March 7, 1950.
Photo: Richard Sennott, Star Tribune
Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board workers, from left, Mark Hallberg, Kent Ansell and Richard Guthier positioned a memorial 2.5 ton boulder with a cast-aluminum plaque on Friday morning in Minneapolis.
CRIPPLED FLIGHT? Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 307 tried to land at the Minneapolis airport in a snowstorm but on final approach to Wold-Chamberlain Field was slightly off-course. Its left wing clipped the top of the flagpole at Fort Snelling National Cemetery. The plane aborted landing and began to turn for a second attempt when its wing fell off. At 9:02 p.m. it nose-dived into a two-story stucco home at 1116 W. Minnehaha Parkway. All 10 passengers and three flight crew members died in the inferno, along with two children in the home's upstairs bedrooms.
THREE SURVIVORS Diane Doughty, then 15, was watching a Minneapolis Lakers basketball game on television with her parents in the first-floor sunroom. The three of them escaped by diving out the windows; all suffered cuts and burns. The youngest Doughtys -- Janet, 10, and Tommy, 8 -- were among those killed. Read On.
Current and former neighbors, relatives of those who died, and others will be in south Minneapolis on Saturday when a memorial marker is unveiled.
The most deadly plane crash in Minneapolis history will be remembered Saturday afternoon with a marker dedication for 15 victims who died when a twin-propeller plane crashed into a south Minneapolis home on March 7, 1950.
Photo: Richard Sennott, Star Tribune
Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board workers, from left, Mark Hallberg, Kent Ansell and Richard Guthier positioned a memorial 2.5 ton boulder with a cast-aluminum plaque on Friday morning in Minneapolis.
CRIPPLED FLIGHT? Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 307 tried to land at the Minneapolis airport in a snowstorm but on final approach to Wold-Chamberlain Field was slightly off-course. Its left wing clipped the top of the flagpole at Fort Snelling National Cemetery. The plane aborted landing and began to turn for a second attempt when its wing fell off. At 9:02 p.m. it nose-dived into a two-story stucco home at 1116 W. Minnehaha Parkway. All 10 passengers and three flight crew members died in the inferno, along with two children in the home's upstairs bedrooms.
THREE SURVIVORS Diane Doughty, then 15, was watching a Minneapolis Lakers basketball game on television with her parents in the first-floor sunroom. The three of them escaped by diving out the windows; all suffered cuts and burns. The youngest Doughtys -- Janet, 10, and Tommy, 8 -- were among those killed. Read On.
Six decades later, plane crash memorial honors victims
By Nick Halter, Southwest Journal
Dee Ann Lemon and Diane Doughty Madsen live 800 miles away from each other.
Up until Aug. 27 they had never met, never so much as exchanged a phone call.
But for one moment the two women felt a special bond that was forged 61 years ago when a plane crash shook their childhoods.
A Northwest Airlines Martin 202 carrying Lemon’s mother, Helen Overlien Hott, clipped a flagpole at Fort Snelling while attempting to land on March 7, 1950. It crashed into the Minnehaha Parkway home of Doughty Madsen, killing her brother and sister. All 13 people aboard Flight 307 were killed, including Lemon’s mother.
The dedication of a memorial marker near the site of the crash brought the two women together. Along with other family members of the victims, they pulled off a cloth to reveal a 2.5-ton boulder with the names of the victims and the history of the crash.
“I felt like I was sitting by a friend and sharing something,” said Lemon, who was 8 years old in 1950. “I felt pain for her, because this happened right here to her in her home.”
Lemon and her husband drove from Ohio to Minneapolis to attend. They weren’t the only ones who traveled to the ceremony. About 300 people packed the gymnasium of Lynnhurst Community Center, including family members of seven of the victims, neighbors who lived on Minnehaha Parkway in 1950 and people interested in the history of the plane crash.
“There were so many people,” said Doughty Madsen, who was 15 at the time of the crash. “I just can’t believe the response. Very heartwarming.” Read on.
Dee Ann Lemon and Diane Doughty Madsen live 800 miles away from each other.
Up until Aug. 27 they had never met, never so much as exchanged a phone call.
But for one moment the two women felt a special bond that was forged 61 years ago when a plane crash shook their childhoods.
A Northwest Airlines Martin 202 carrying Lemon’s mother, Helen Overlien Hott, clipped a flagpole at Fort Snelling while attempting to land on March 7, 1950. It crashed into the Minnehaha Parkway home of Doughty Madsen, killing her brother and sister. All 13 people aboard Flight 307 were killed, including Lemon’s mother.
The dedication of a memorial marker near the site of the crash brought the two women together. Along with other family members of the victims, they pulled off a cloth to reveal a 2.5-ton boulder with the names of the victims and the history of the crash.
“I felt like I was sitting by a friend and sharing something,” said Lemon, who was 8 years old in 1950. “I felt pain for her, because this happened right here to her in her home.”
Lemon and her husband drove from Ohio to Minneapolis to attend. They weren’t the only ones who traveled to the ceremony. About 300 people packed the gymnasium of Lynnhurst Community Center, including family members of seven of the victims, neighbors who lived on Minnehaha Parkway in 1950 and people interested in the history of the plane crash.
“There were so many people,” said Doughty Madsen, who was 15 at the time of the crash. “I just can’t believe the response. Very heartwarming.” Read on.
