On first thought, I would have put that airplane crash in the late seventies, but I'm not sure at all.  I think I have it confused with another.  Back then few people had air conditioning, so we were attuned to airplane noise in Melrose and Allapattah.   I was washing dishes when I heard a plane going east over the house, and I knew the engine didn't sound right.  By the time I got out into the front yard, it was gaining altitude as it disappeared over the treetops, but one engine was trailing some smoke.   A little later I heard it coming back, and everyone within hearing ran out into their yard in a panic.   In came over our house very low at a north-west angle (a block east of 22nd Ave), on one engine and a prayer, and we were covered with smoke on the ground.  One engine was fully on fire.  Hacking and coughing, we all started running for 28th Street.  It was just before the worst of the evening commute, and after the kids got out of school.  Baseball was a passion with the Cubans, fathers and sons, back then, and Melrose park, a two-block long park actually in Allapattah between 25th and 27th Ave, was always full of young baseball players.  We "knew" the plane couldn't make it past 27th Ave and assumed he was going to try to put it down in the park, surely full of children.   But by a miracle, almost at treetop level, one of the other engines cut back on, he gained a little altitude, and he decided to try for the northernmost runway just past 42nd Ave and south of 36th Street, a fatal mistake, but a lifesaver for the kids in the park.    We all held our breaths, listening. 

A second lifesaving miracle had occurred:  there's a railroad line, the same one that ran past RBC Lumber, that curves along the river, and crosses 36 St. northbound at 39th Ave.  This was a usual run back out of Miami at this time of afternoon for this long freight train, and it wasn't unheard of for it to stall out or even derail, blocking traffic on 36 Street and totally disrupting commuter flow.   It was a sore spot with drivers for years.  This was one of those times.   Traffic eastbound was blocked completely, and westbound traffic, accustomed to occasional hours of tie-up, seeing the train way up ahead, would cut south or north depending on their destination.   So traffic on usually busy 36th St. was almost non-existent at that moment.

The plane was on a roller-coaster ride as engines cut in and out, flying noisily with it's fuselage over the buildings along the south side of 36th, lined up with the northern runway.  A neighbor, Tony, worked at the transmission shop on the corner of Avenue where the plane went down.  Adjoining to the east was a two-story long building  with medical offices upstairs.  A customer of ours owned an auto paint and body shop west across the Avenue, and lived behind it.  His two teenage sons worked in the shop with him.   He had just gone to take care of some business, leaving his sons in charge.

As drivers heard and saw the plane and the smoke, they abandoned their vehicles in the street, running into businesses to the north and out the back doors.   The pilot had his landing gear down, still some eight or nine blocks from the runway, when a final engine failure dropped him onto the roof of the medical building.   Patients and staff ran for cover as the wheels ripped through the roof, dropping debris; it then raked through the ceiling of the transmission shop and plowed into the auto paint & body shop, exploding into a massive fireball, fed by aviation fuel and the flammable liquids in the shop, and continuing on through a few more businesses.  Our customer's family was wiped out in an instant.   Tony and his co-workers made it out the other side of their building.   Many people were burned by the intensity of the flames and falling debris.   Many others, like you, Mike, came to the rescue to help the injured and those in shock, and to evacuate the businesses in the area. 

We didn't hear many complaints about the stalled trains for some years after that!

I've heard about Funland for years, but I don't recall ever seeing it.  It must have been gone or in decline by the time we moved into Allapattah.  Does anyone have any pictures or memories of the place to share?  There's a mention of a ride called the Scrambler being installed there in '54 or '55, a Wild Mouse in '56.   

From time to time throughout the years we have had medfly scares as well as other exotic escapees,  being halfway between the Port of Miami and the Miami International Airport.  I know all about those early dawn flights, and everyone running out afterwards to wash off their cars.  There was a lot of controversy about the safety to humans, and finally science has won the battle.  They breed bunches of male medflies (Mediterranean Fruit Flies), sterilize them, and then release them by plane.  The lady flies don't know the difference, and after several runs, the population dies out.  It takes a little longer but is a lot cleaner, and I'm sure it makes the medflies happier than being poisoned.  

Click to enlarge

PS:  The yellow cellophane was to keep the merchandise from fading in the sun.  I know this because I worked some as a window dresser many years ago.

Last edited on Sat Dec 9th, 2006 06:50 am by bessnfloyd