--- title: Park Slope Plane Crash: Collision in Sky Above New York, December 1960 description: On December 16, 1960, two airliners collided above New York, raining debris, cargo and bodies down on Brooklyn and Staten Island. canonical: https://time.com/3879354/airplanes-collide-above-new-york-december-1960/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-13T21:23:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:45.859Z og:title: Park Slope Plane Crash: Collision in Sky Above New York, December 1960 og:description: On December 16, 1960, two airliners collided above New York, raining debris, cargo and bodies down on Brooklyn and Staten Island. og:url: https://time.com/3879354/airplanes-collide-above-new-york-december-1960/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a54569604f00e61/6988450006f2c1fd9b338e5f/50660696.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2943 og:image:height: 1655 og:image:alt: Brooklyn Plane Crash 1960 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Park Slope Plane Crash: Collision in Sky Above New York, December 1960 twitter:description: On December 16, 1960, two airliners collided above New York, raining debris, cargo and bodies down on Brooklyn and Staten Island. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a54569604f00e61/6988450006f2c1fd9b338e5f/50660696.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Death From Above: Airliners Collide Above New York City, December 1960 > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Mar 13, 2014 9:23 PM UTC  Wreckage litters the streets of Brooklyn after two airliners collide above the borough, December 1960. Wreckage litters the streets of Brooklyn after two airliners collide above the borough, December 1960.Bob Gomel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Mar 13, 2014 9:23 PM UTC On December 16, 1960, two airliners [collided above New York City](http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/park-slope-plane-crash-the-lede-all/), raining debris, cargo, and bodies down on the boroughs on Brooklyn and Staten Island. More than five decades later, the devastation of that day — captured by several LIFE photographers in the hours after the disaster — still shocks. [\[MORE: Read about the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 mystery.\]](http://time.com/23892/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-search/) Fog and sleet limited visibility in the skies above New York when Trans World Airlines Flight 266, with 44 people aboard, and United Flight 826, a Douglas DC-8 jetliner carrying 84 people, crossed paths, and collided. Wreckage from the TWA plane landed mostly on the isolated Miller Army Airfield in Staten Island. The destroyed United plane proved far more catastrophic, slamming into Brooklyn’s densely populated [Park Slope](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park%5FSlope,%5FBrooklyn) neighborhood. Falling wreckage killed six people on the ground, including two men selling Christmas trees. A stream of jet fuel touched off a seven-alarm fire, destroying 10 buildings. All told, 134 people were killed: 128 passengers and crew members on the planes and six in Brooklyn. While there have, of course, been air disasters resulting in far more deaths than the “Park Slope Plane Crash,” as it came to be called, in the years since December 1960, the destruction wrought by that mid-air collision was shattering. It also served as a sad foreshadowing of even worse airline-related horrors that, with the rapid global growth of air travel, were virtually guaranteed to come.  Wreckage litters the streets of Brooklyn after two airliners collide above the borough, December 1960. Bob Gomel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. Bob Gomel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  New York City fire Chief Edward F. Cavanaugh (left) and Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. near the crash site. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. Bob Gomel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Wreckage on Staten Island in aftermath of air disaster, December 1960. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. Stan Wayman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. Bob Gomel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. Bob Gomel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aftermath of air disaster, Brooklyn, December 1960. 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