Ronkonkoma - Ronkonkoma

On January 26, 1956 at 04:33 PM, Ronkonkoma - Ronkonkoma experienced a crash involving Lockheed PV-1 Ventura, operated by Swiftlite Aircraft Corporation, with the event recorded near Smithtown New York.

The flight was categorized as training and the reported phase was flight at a plain, valley crash site.

3 people were known to be on board, 3 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 3, crew fatalities: 3, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. N2000C took off at 1625 on January 26, 1956, from MacArthur Field, Ronkonkoma, Long Island, New York, its home base, on a local flight with three pilots. They were Bernard J. Malloy, check pilot, and Pilots Raymond Hamberg and Hugo D. Filangeri. The purpose of the flight was to qualify Pilot Hamberg on the Lockheed PV-1 aircraft, a type he had never piloted. The takeoff of N 2000C was normal, toward the northwest, and made under VFR (Visual Flight Rules) conditions with Pilot Hamberg occupying the left or captain's to scat and Pilot Malloy, as check pilot, seated on the right as copilot; Pilot Filangeri acted as observer. Subsequently the PV-1 was seen over the Smithtown area, flying westerly at an estimated altitude of 2,500-3,000 feet, where a witness reported that the engines sounded normal but that the aircraft appeared to be flying at a slow airspeed. Witnesses stated that shortly thereafter the engine power sounded as though it was cut momentarily and then came back on. At an altitude of approximately 2,000 feet the aircraft was seen to dip down and pull up, slightly nose-high, and then fall off to the left, making two to three turns of a descending spiral, and disappear behind the tree-topped horizon. Flames erupted frost the woods over the point where the aircraft was last seen, followed quickly by a large column of black smoke. All three pilots were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration N2000C, MSN 5243, year of manufacture 1943.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 40.8559°, -73.2007°.