This evening I digitized a cassette tape containing a recording of a twenty-year old news special that aired on Elkton Radio Station WSER in 1993. Thirty years earlier, on December 8, 1963, 81-people perished when Pan American World Airlines Flight 214 exploded over the town, so the station examined the tragedy.
In the long unheard recording, Chuck De Socio, the show host, interviewed local emergency personnel and witnesses. Those included E. Rosemary Culley, the dispatcher who coordinated the response of emergency units and Judge Kenneth E. Wilcox, a Civil Defense Police Officer. He also talked with Eva Muse, a witness, and to the Historical Society for background information.
Since the Historical Society of Cecil County is preparing to host a community remembrance program this December as fifty years have now passed, we have been interviewing people and pulling together materials such as moving images, photos, and sounds for the remembrance archive. This digital recording will be added to our Flight 214 Collection and we are also sharing it online. It is a long tape, running about 40 minutes, but you may listen to sections of it.
Also here is a link to a recording of Lt. Don Hash of the MSP, the first emergency responder to arrive on the scene, sharing his recollections.