On a terrible night in 1963, eighty-one people aboard a doomed aircraft, Pan American Airways Flight 214, perished when the plane exploded and plunged into a cornfield at the edge of Elkton. The fiery blast in the stormy Maryland sky caused the plane to break up in flight. The first arriving emergency responder, Lt. Don Hash of the Maryland State Police, observed that the only sizeable recognizable piece of jetliner was a section of fuselage with about eight or ten window frames.
On that cold, rainy December evening, as lighting periodically illuminated the cornfield, a county firefighter also died in the line of duty. When the general alarm went out for all available ambulances, Steward W. Godwin, 56, responded on the North East Volunteer Fire Company unit. While searching for survivors about 1:30 that morning, he suddenly collapsed into the arms of Andrew Scarborough, another North East member, the News Journal reported.
This horrifying aircraft disaster, the worst in Maryland history, is something that is seared into the collective memory of the community. The generation residing here in 1963 will never forget the unusual December thunderstorm and how the fiery blast in the stormy sky suddenly illuminated the town, momentarily turning December darkness into daylight. Fear, anxiety, and concern swept across the unnerved community as emergency units rushed toward the cornfield, hoping to aid the injured. But it was soon apparent that the accident wasn’t survivable.
A granite memorial was dedicated at the crash site in 1994. It is located near the main impact point on Delancy Road, in a grassy center strip of Wheelhouse Drive, the entrance to Turnquist, a development that sprang up years afterward.
There is one other memorial to plane crash victims in the county. Dedicated in 2011, it was placed where the plane hit a hillside, taking 53 lives on Memorial Day 1947.
I am Edwin Montilla the son of Pan Am Flight Purser Mario Montilla who perished on Pan Am Flight 214 Dec 8, 1963. This horrible incident changed my whole life from this day forward. I cannot describe the long suffering I had endured to this day. I was 15 at the time when a youngster like me most needed his Dad for guidance and direction. My teenage years were horrible,when friends made reference to they’re Dads about what they did together I would walk away and cried cried cried !!!
Edwin, were you able to make the remembrance program held in Elkton as the community and family members came together for a weekend to mark the passage of 50 years since this tragedy shattered so many lives? We heard so many of these stories as family members and first responders came together, talked, and reflected on the passage of 50 years since the disaster. Here in Elkton, a number of those firefighters and police officers who met with families have passed away since then, but at least there was an opportunity for the two groups to meet and share experiences, emotions, and feelings.
Needless to say,no I didn’t attend,but I would love to attend if and when another program develops ,I would be happy to go. I would share my and my family’s actual experience of where we were at the time of the crash and what we went through thereafter.
Regards,Edwin Montilla
Thanks Edwin. It was a moving experience hearing the stories of other family members as they came back to Elkton to meet and share their accounts.
I just stumbled on this web site, my mother was born and raised at Perry Point. As a child my grandparents lived in Rising Sun and my mom’s uncle Charlie Ritchie owned Ritchie Motors. Thanks for the memories
Dear Edwin, I will speak for many by saying we’re sorry for your loss. I found this article wanting to learn a little more about this disaster. I was just a small boy at the time and never heard about it previously. It is the worst plane disaster ever attributed to lightening and subsequent investigations into the crash led to changes in airplane design that have since saved many lives from perishing in similar lightening accidents. I don’t know if you were aware of this and hope that knowing your loss helped save others, brings you solace in some small way.
Sincerely, Ron Heck
I just found this article while trying to research the names of the four crew members on board that were NOT in the cockpit. I’m glad I read the comments as Edwin has enlightened me to one more of them. I am so sorry for your loss, Edwin.
If anyone does know where I can find a crew list, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you Amanda for your kind words ..
Regards,Edwin
my great uncle died in the crash. i have the full list of victims(including the crew). you can email me at eliperlman@verizon.net, and i’ll email you the list
Eli, thanks for sharing this information about your family. Periodically, we hear from other people who had family members on that flight.
I just found this site. I was 6 at the time and my great uncle Bob, my name sake was kidled along with his wife Florence. He was partners with my grandfather in our family business in which my father and his brother were also employed. The loss of Bob, meant that my father, who was new to the business, had to pick up his uncle’s duties. I remember him bringing home the extra work.
Years later when I had gone into the business and was hiring a sales engineer to take the place of one who was retiring, a guy came into my office to interview. It came out after I had hired him, that he was the last baby delivered by an OB/GYN who was also killed in that crash! It was too weird a coincidence.
I was waiting to start Radioman school at Bainbridge Naval training
center when the plane crashed. I worked for several days helping
with recovering body parts and parts of the plane wreckage.
It was quite a strange feeling as a 19 year old kid on that Navy bus
on the way to the crash site.
By the way, after radio school, I was stationed in Puerto Rico and
took that same flight number back to baltimore several times.
Robert thanks for sharing your memory of that difficult day.
I just recently came upon this website. I was pulling information together to document, for my children and grandchildren, the crash of Flight 214. Just a month and-a-half before turning 5 years old, I witnessed the plane being struck by lightning and seeing an explosion in the sky, from our home in Eastburn Acres, off the Kirkwood Highway in Wilmington, DE. I ran to tell my parents, but they didn’t believe me, thinking it was a fabricated ploy to keep from going back to bed. However, about 10 to 15 minutes later, a special report came on the TV, announcing that a plane had gone down in Elkton, approximately 25 minutes away from us. Realizing that I had actually seen it, my father abruptly left the house to go to the scene. Fifty years later, we submitted our stories to the Elkton Historical Society, in remembrance of those who’d lost their lives on that flight. Though I hadn’t lost anyone on that flight, my life was forever changed, realizing what had occurred that night. I often ride by the site when in the general vicinity and can’t help but to get emotional about it. I’m so sorry for all of the families who lost loved ones that night. I hope that in some small way, it helps those families who are still living with that tragedy, to know that there are still many of us out here who remember and will never forget…
Susan, thanks for sharing your reflectons on the Flight 214 crash.
Thank you for your kind words,I am Edwin Pan Am’s Flight Purser Mario Montilla son ..my Dad who lost his life while working ..
My aunt and husband were on their way back from their honeymoon on this flight. So devastating. I never got to meet her.
So sorry to hear that, Emily.