Lockheed Seastar

In a watershed in Northern Jersey, the lush green vegitation soak in the warm morning sun as they reach around the forgotten Lockheed military training plane. Nature has reclaimed what two-Marine Reservists left behind.

In 1962, the Lockheed two-manned aircraft began its journey from the Naval Air Station at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, heading southwest on a training expedition.  As they neared West Milford, New Jersey, the pilots began to experience engine trouble and “flamed out,” as one of the pilots reported to The Milford Messenger. 

A nearby worker who was sitting in the Bearfort Fire Tower, keeping a watchful eye for possible fire below, heard the sounds of the plane and witnessed it descend as it crashed into the dense wooded area. The worker quickly called the police, and a search by foot and air was put into place.

Captain John Ryan and Sergeant Louis Hall entered the wooded, swampy area on foot while a search and rescue helicopter flew overhead. The Captain and Sergeant began a zig-zag search through the terrain until they were able to locate the plane. Upon approaching the aircraft, the two pilots were found standing outside the downed Lockheed.

The pilots informed their rescuers that the ejection seats failed to deploy. The plane’s malfunction trapped them inside the aircraft. When the aircraft came to rest in the heavily wooded area, the two men were spared,  left with minor injuries, and able to climb out of the wreckage.

Sometime later, it was said that the military came back to the site with a helicopter to remove the engine. When visiting the site is was made clear that vandals had removed the nose of the plane and dragged it about 100 feet. Over the past fifty years, explorers of the site have gutted the aircraft, taking souvenirs, fuel tanks, and scrap metal.

The only remaining evidence of the horrific fiery descent from the skies of the once majestic Lockheed aircraft is the metal wing that now sits crumbled against the rotted-out tree stump.

^{1 This site was visited and photographed by Jesse-JamesBlack back in 2014.}