When I was a kid growing up in Corsicana I remember my folks pointing out to me an old plane fuselage across a field and behind the treeline just north of town.

IIRC, it was located here:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=corsicana,+tx&hl=en&ll=32.172834,-96.461978&spn=0.014203,0.01929&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=53.829089,79.013672&t=h&hnear=Corsicana,+Navarro,+Texas&z=16

Supposedly it was a plane highjacked out of Dallas that crash landed there. I'm guessing this would have at least been in the mid 70s if not earlier than that. I always looked for it when we were headed north on 45, and depending on whether or not the trees had leaves you could kind of see it in the distance. I think at some point in time they finally scrapped the fuselage. Obviously there is no wreckage in the aerial shot.

Reading this article this morning reminded me of it. Googling around I can't seem to find anything about it.

Can anyone (Bop?) provide any insight or is this just a figment of an 8 year old's imagination?

The only highjackings involving Texas were:

quote:

---

July 2, 1971: Braniff Flight 14, a B-707 flying from Acapulco to New York with 102 passengers and a crew of eight was hijacked on approach to a refueling stop in San Antonio, Texas. The ordeal lasted 43 hours across Texas, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and ended happily in Argentina. After a refueling stop in Monterrey, the hijackers released flight attendants Jeanette Eatman Crepps, Iris Kay Williams and Anita Bankert Mayer and all of the passengers. The remaining crew of Captain Dale Bessant, Bill Wallace, Phillip Wray and flight attendants Ernestina Garcia and Margaret Susan Harris flew on to Lima. The hijackers, a U.S. Navy deserter named Robert Jackson and his Guatemalan lady friend, demanded and got a ransom of $100,000 and wanted to go to Algeria. The Bessant crew was released, one by one, and replaced by a volunteer crew of Captain Al Schroeder, Bill Mizell, Bob Williams and Navigater Ken McWhorter. Two Lima based employees, Delia Arizola and Clorinda Ortoneda volunteered toboard the flight. Delia had been retired 6 months but still offered her services. The B-707 left for Rio and planned to refuel but the hijacker forced them on to Buenos Aires. The long flight and fatigue took its toll and the hijackers gave up. It was a record for long distance hijacking, over 7,500 miles.

---

quote:

---

January 12, 1972: Braniff Flight 38, a Boeing 727, was hijacked as it departed Houston, Texas bound for Dallas, Texas. The lone armed hijacker, Billy Gene Hurst, Jr., allowed all 94 passengers to deplane after landing at Dallas Love Field but continued to hold the 7 crewmembers hostage, demanding to fly to South America and asking for US $2 million, parachutes, and jungle survival gear, amongst other items. After a 6-hour standoff, the entire crew secretly fled while Hurst was distracted examining the contents of a package delivered by Dallas police. Police officers stormed the craft shortly afterwards and arrested Hurst without serious incident.

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_hijackings

I wonder if its something I just made up and it festered in my head for the last 25+ years or if it was my folks or sisters pulling my leg.

I'm going to guess that you were being told some sort of Urban Legend. It seems highly unlikely to me that a plane would crash and they would just leave it where it hit. I'm guessing someone bought a plane as scrap and hauled it out there, then someone started a tall tale to explain why it got where it was.

The NTSB Database does not list any airliner crashes in the Corsicana, Rice or Ennis areas.

Wikipedia's list of hijackings does not show any hijacked plane ever crashing in Texas.

And BTW, are you sure it was an airplane? If your family was kidding you, it might have just been a bit of machinery or fuel tank or the like.



[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 7/13/2012 1:27p).]

It's highly possible that they were either kidding me or it was something I completely made up to entertain myself in the back of the station wagon.

I remember this as well but Im thinking early 80s. I think it was a plane full of marijuana and other drugs that had to emergency land in that field

In the late 50's an Electra (?) passenger plane crashed north of Buffalo with a great loss of life. crashed in a bad storm. could this be it?

No it was definitely between Corsicana and Dallas and I'm 90% sure that I picked the right field on google maps above. I keep forgetting to ask my folks about it.

I lived in Corsicana in the early 80's, and drove past that plane for years going to Ennis. It was easily seen in a field amongst some trees on the east side of I45 near Rice. Supposedly emergency landed transporting marijuana. It sat there for years, but I don't know if it is still there.

Whew, glad to think I'm not crazy

I know this topic is old....but I was searching for information on that plane the other day and found this post. I still think about that plane everyday I drive I45. This is all I could find about it. http://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/08/20/The-Navarro-County-sheriffs-office-Friday-seized-a-DC-6/1431398664000/

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=16166

I know that had to dismantle it as they couldn't get the engines to start.

EMY92, that list of hijackings is NOT complete. There was a hijacking that ended in Lake Jackson, Texas in the 1970s. Don't know about Corsicana, but here's the LJ story:

40 years later: The day a 727 landed at Lake Jackson

olarmy69 said:

---

In the late 50's an Electra (?) passenger plane crashed north of Buffalo with a great loss of life. crashed in a bad storm. could this be it?

---

Near Dawson on Highway 31 East of Corsicana. Very little was left of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braniff_Flight_352

The Electra had a checkered early career. A design flaw allowed a vibration where the engine was mounted to the wing which would cause metal fatigue. After several crashes, Lockheed fixed it and while airlines shunned the plane, the US Navy flew it for years as the P3 Orion. I was flying between Austin and Killeen the night of the Dawson crash and observed the thunderstorm that caused the crash.

Not good to be flying in Braniff Electras over Central Texas in those days.