Stephen Baltz
The only initial survivor of the tragedy was 11-year-old Stephen Lambert Baltz (born January 9, 1949) of Wilmette, Illinois. Baltz was traveling alone aboard Flight 826 to meet his mother and sister, who had flown to New York the day before, while his father was due to join the family on a later flight. The family was planning to spend Christmas in Yonkers with relatives.
Upon Flight 826's impact with the ground, Baltz was thrown from the plane into a snowbank, where local residents rolled him in the snow to extinguish his burning clothing. Though alive and conscious following the crash, he was badly burned and suffering from burning fuel aspiration.
Baltz was taken to New York Methodist Hospital, fifteen blocks from the crash site down Seventh Avenue. From his hospital bed, he told rescuers that moments before the collision, he had looked out the window at the snow falling on the city:
- "It looked like a picture out of a fairy book. It was a beautiful sight."
Pictures of Baltz appeared on many front pages around the world such as the Syracuse Post-Standard repeating a story from the Associated Press in which he expressed concern about his mother, who was waiting for him at the airport. He gave the only description of the crash:
- "I heard a big noise while we were flying. The last thing I remember was the plane falling."
Baltz died of pneumonia the next morning. Hospital staff were unaware that his lungs had been seared by burning jet fuel, a life-threatening condition, which was later revealed at autopsy.
An 8-by-14 inch commemorative plaque encrusted with four ten-cent coins and five five-cent coins on the rear wall of the hospital's Phillips Chapel memorializes Baltz and all "135 Victims of The Aircraft Disaster" . The coins on the plaque are those found in Baltz's pocket and placed in the chapel's donation box after his death by his father, an Admiral Corporation vice president.
Read more about this topic: 1960 New York Air Disaster