75 years unknown: The crash of Flight 624 over Centralia

June 17, 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the crash of a major airliner over the little former town of Centralia.

United Airlines Flight 624 crashed at 1:41 PM daylight time just between Wilburton and and Centralia, PA. Four crew members and 39 passengers on board all perished in the accident..

Pottsville REPUBLICAN reported “bodies all over the place” in 1948..

It almost hit the then-active Midvalley Colliery 2.. It missed it by only 100 yards!

Witnesses at the time report, and stories got handed down, that the tip of the wing nearly took out the Colliery. My own father reported to me that, when he was a kid, the “old timers” in town spoke about potential wealth! According to some stories, a few raced to the site of the crash because they thought there could be riches that fell with the incinerated bodies. Even to this day, some pass through Centralia with hopes of finding just something, anything, with metal detectors at the site of the crash.

RECORDS OF THE EVENT

Ed Darlington of radio station WCNR at nearby Bloomsburg said “there was no sign of life and apparently everyone was killed.” The scene of the wreck was in a sparsely wooded area about five miles from Mt. Carmel, a small town 135 miles from Philadelphia where delegates are gathering for the Republican National Convention. News of the crash brought excited whispering from the delegates. No one knew for certain whether any high Republican officials were on the plane.

Ira F. Roadarmel of Mt. Carmel, one of the first persons on the scene, said “everything was scattered. The largest piece of the plane left was an engine. The rest of the plane was in small parts — so small they could be carried.”

George Minnich, an employee of Midvalley Colliery No. 2, which the plane missed by only 100 yards in its descent, said that he saw the plane bank. “Suddenly there was a horrible crash,” he said. “All you could see was a mass of flames. It sounded as though the end of the world was coming.”

The plane’s logbook, found near the scene of the crash in a thickly wooded area, identified the plane’s pilot as Captain George Warner.

— The Sheboygan Press, June 17, 1948.

Another report came to us from the DAILY ITEM:

The flight next passed over Sunbury airport at 12:33 p.m. at an altitude of 4,000 feet. As the lower flying plane approached Shamokin, it attracted ground observers who noticed it appeared to be flying erratically, out of control and descending. Just north of the city it made a shallow left turn.

Passing to the north of Mount Carmel and still descending, the aircraft, now close to the ground, made a turn and struck a transformer and high voltage wires, crashing in flames on the side of a hill. Fire from the debris burned an area in size equal to three city blocks. There were a number of prominent people and movie people on board the plane.

We previously reported on this on previous anniversary months. But it is just as cool now to remind ourselves of the nearly ancient history!

Among the passengers were Broadway theatre impresario Earl Carroll and his girlfriend, actress Beryl Wallace; Henry L. Jackson, men’s fashion editor of Collier’s Weekly magazine and co-founder of Esquire Magazine; and Venita Varden Oakie, the former wife of actor Jack Oakie..

From what we know of first hand reports that were passed down over the previous 75 years: The plane dropped in altitude and continued eastward at a fairly low altitude. Flight 624 passed over Sunbury at an estimated 1,000 feet then swung southeast toward Shamokin over which it passed at approximately 400 feet.

It then continued eastward and passed over Kulpmont at such a low altitude that it startled people in town who looked up– some claimed they they could actually see the faces of passengers looking out of the windows. James Clauser of Kulpmont makes it into history. He was 13 when the plane went down. He said he was standing outside his father’s garage and saw people looking out of the window..

It continued eastward into the Richards Valley north of Mt. Carmel and started ascending.

It continued past Wilburton No. 1 and when it came to Wilburton No. 2 was only about 30 feet off the ground. It was headed straight for the Midvalley breaker in which 80 men were working and veered to the right. When it did it’s wing tip hit a transformer substation carrying 66,000 volts of electricity. The plane exploded in a massive fireball scattering debris and human body parts up the mountain for 200 yards..

Investigators later concluded that Captain George Warner Jr. and his co-pilot were either unconscious or incapacitated due to carbon dioxide fumes seeping into the cockpit from several fire extinguishers in the cargo hold. At the time, Paul MacElwee from the Shamokin NEWS ITEM said it was rumored that one of the stewardesses may have been trying to fly the plane in the final minutes.

Funeral Director Joseph Stutz had the difficult task of identifying bodies after the crash.

There was a macabre dispatch in the WILKES BARRE TIMES LEADER about last rites being given to the dead by Father Phelan:

An image of Phelan doing it is holds such emotion, all of these years later.

THE FINAL RESTING PLACE

And about those bodies. Centralia holds some history among its dead.

In Odd Fellows Cemetery, George von Sebo, who was head of merchandising for a paint company. No one claimed his body.. he was buried in Odd Fellows as a result..

A marker was also placed in St. Ignatius Cemetery .. this was to mark unidentified bodies from the crash..

BUT.. 75 years later.. we have a new marker. Updated and refreshed.

This year the stone got a beautiful refurbishing just in time for this anniversary. Joseph J. Stutz, Inc. Funeral Home in Mt. Carmel paid to have the marker cleaned and engraved by Fritz monument company. A much needed 75th anniversary tribute.

Beautiful work to honor the unknown victims behind the large white cross in the cemetery on the hill.