RIKERS ISLAND INMATES BECAME HEROS AFTER DEVASTATING AIROLANE CRASH IN 1957

Mark Kronen said he doesn’t know the name of the inmate who saved his life that night. But if he did, he would tell him and his family that he was a hero.

Like a bird with a crippled wing, Northeast Airlines Flight 823 swayed in the stormy sky above LaGuardia Airport on a freezing February night over 60 years ago.

Snow and ice pelted the aircraft as it begrudgingly climbed. Still, its 95 passengers remained calm, just glad to finally be off the ground after waiting more three hours to depart because of the severe weather. Some of them were already sleeping.

“Al, ground coming up!” co-pilot Basil Dixwell suddenly screamed at the DC-6A’s captain, Alvin Marsh.

But there was nothing that could be done. The Miami-bound plane crashed into a patch of trees on Rikers Island, ripping off its wings and bursting into flames less than a minute after take-off.

Panicked fliers began scrambling through gaping holes in the fuselage as flames engulfed the cabin. One man dragged his shrieking wife out by her hair. Burning babies were thrown from the plane and rolled in the snow. The jet hissed and screamed as a final explosion rocked its ravaged metal frame and took 20 lives with it. The survivors howled for help, while those who could, ran. It had been less than 2 minutes since the plane crashed.

Then out of the darkness came the most unlikely of saviors: inmates from Rikers. Their remarkable turn that night was so heroic that it eventually...read more