Hurricanes and Other Disasters

Airplane Crashes

The Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas (named after a popular Governor of the Virgin Islands who died in office) is located on the Southwestern portion of the island. The runway is bounded by the University of the Virgin Islands and a residential area on the North, the remnants of what was once a 200-foot hill and a commercial district on the East, Lindberg Bay and three beach hotels on the South, and the open Caribbean Sea on the West. The airport has had a stormy history, including a number of airplane crash.

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh visited St. Thomas in his Spirit of St. Louis and landed on a grassy swamp to the north of what was then called Mosquito Bay. He was most likely the first person to have used this area of St. Thomas as an airstrip, and Mosquito Bay was later renamed Lindbergh Bay in his honor. In 1936, U.S. Marines and Navy Seabees constructed a dirt strip for use as a military airfield that was named Bourne Field. This name is still applied to the residential area north of the current airport. In 1945, the Navy granted permission to Caribbean Atlantic Airlines (Caribair) to use Bourne Field for commercial operations between San Juan and St. Thomas. In 1948, management of the airfield was transferred to the U.S. Department of the Interior, and by 1950 the field, now called Harry S. Truman Airport in honor of President Truman's visit to the island, was transferred to the Government of the Virgin Islands.

The view from the cockpit of a Piper Cherokee landing at the St. Thomas airport, circa 1975

Truman Airport took on international significance in 1950, when Pan American Airways started flying DC-3's into St. Thomas. By 1956, Pan Am had switched to the larger DC-6 for its Caribbean routes. But these larger aircraft could not clear the 200-foot Sara Hill that was just off the runway's eastern end (with the prevailing tradewinds blowing from the East, most flights had to take off over Sara Hill), so Pan Am cut St. Thomas from its route structure. In 1965, attracted by the growing tourist trade to St. Thomas, Pan Am again started serving St. Thomas, now with Boeing 727 jet aircraft. Soon, Eastern Airlines, American Airlines, and others were also flying into St. Thomas's Harry S. Truman Airport. However, since 1956, when Pan Am first decided to cut St. Thomas from its route because of the inadequacies of the airport, a controversy raged among local government, business, and community leaders about the need to improve the airport. This controversy would not be settled until 1990.

In the meantime, Truman Airport, with its 4,658-foot runway, developed a reputation as an unsafe airport for commercial jets. In fact, the International Federation of Air Line Pilots annually gave Truman Airport a "black star" to indicate that it was "critically deficient." Not surprisingly, Truman Airport had its share of airplane crashes, several of them fatal. During the period of 1965 to 1975, there were seven private and commuter airplane crashes that resulted in the loss of 25 lives, including a twin-engine commuter plane that crashed into a home killing several children. There have also been two major airline crashes.

• On December 28, 1970, a Trans-Caribbean Airways Boeing 727 from New York enountered turbulence while landing, overshot the runway, and crashed into the side of Sara Hill. Miraculously, one man and his 12-year old son were the only fatalities. The other 53 passengers and crew managed to escape.

• On April 27, 1976, in what seemed like a replay of the 1970 crash, an American Airlines Boeing 727 overshot the runway on landing and crashed directly in front of a service station at the foot of Sara Hill. This crash claimed the lives of 37 of the 88 passengers on board. Somehow, the service station itself didn't explode in the resulting fire.

The remains of a Boeing 727 the day after a crash at St. Thomas in April 1976 that took 37 lives

After some 34 years of debate, study, and planning, in 1990 the Virgin Islands inaugurated it's brand new Cyril E. King Airport at the location of the former Harry S. Truman Airport. This new facility not only has a longer runway that is capable of safely handling many of today's commercial jet aircraft, like the Boeing 757 and Airbus A300, but also boasts a modern airport terminal and improved facilities for commuter, freight, and general aviation aircraft. In fact, after Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-141 Starlifter transports planes (second in size only to the monstrous Lockheed C-5A Galaxy) were used to bring thousands of tons of food and other emergency supplies to St. Thomas. Although there have been several airplane crashes since the April 1976 American Airlines crash, they have involved small commuter or private airplanes and, thankfully, have not resulted in further fatalities.

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Last Updated: January 1, 2003