1976-Memorial Stadium Plane Crash After Colts Playoff Game (WCBM Radio)
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- čas přidán 4. 01. 2019
- -Just ten minutes after the Baltimore Colts 1976 season came to an end with a lopsided 40-14 playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers at Memorial Stadium, a small private plane crashed into the upper deck of the stadium. Fortunately the stadium was by this point largely empty of spectators. The pilot, an unstable individual named Donald Kroner, was unhurt.
-Here is how the crash was reported during the Colts Radio Network postgame show. Heard are Tom Davis, longtime Colts and Orioles voice Chuck Thompson, and Colts legend Art Donovan. - Sport
The fact that nobody died is Pretty Good!
Who’s here after watching Jon Bois and Secret Bases’ coverage of this?
Right here! That video was amazing and this story is crazy!
Yup
+1
Don Kroger was the one who crashed his plane at Memorial Stadium several years ago. He used to be my neighbor when he used to live in a apartment across from my apartment and he was very drunk and smelled very bad. I found it was him after several years ago when I first saw this on the news when I was little and it scared me.
Me
When the Steelers saved lives.
@Austin Dreyer 🤣🤣🤣
Use this as a Jon Bois button
Just had occasion to look this up and found all the interesting comments about the crash. As it was, I was the NFL Films cameraman on the overhang ramp outside the press box for this game on the 50 yard line position. Packing up as the game was a blowout for the Colts, my eye caught some lights beyond the distant goal posts at the open end of the stadium. Being a pilot myself I started to realize that this was, at first thought a helicopter but then realizing it was the red and green lights on the wind tips of a plane and they were heading towards the stadium. The pilot flew over the goal posts and dropped significantly down to field level and then tried to do a maneuver we are taught if ever caught in a canyon. His airspeed and lack of altitude made it impossible for him to clear the upper deck creating the crash. I was concerned as one of our end zone cameramen were in the press box just below that upper deck. He was packing up equipment and never saw the plane coming at him. As noted before, a blessing that the game was a blowout or the death toll would have been incomparable. Lucky as well that the few who were in the stands were not smoking as fuel was dripping all over the place from the ruptured fuel tanks.
Thank you for sharing your recollections! And yes, it is a miracle no one was killed.
This is an absolutely wild first account. I cannot imagine flying inside of a stadium like this. I’ve only given it a shot on flight simulators back in the day. But I would never place my pilot license on the line nor try to spend time in jail. That guy was crazy.
I was there that day...here's the story, the Baltimore Colt fans (including me) had been tearing down the goal posts at Memorial Stadium after exciting recent winning victories so to prevent this Balto's finest paraded their horse patrol around the sidelines towards the end of this game to prevent fans from doing it again. A local well know drunk who had his pilots license and actually attended this game, left the stadium early because it was a blowout dominated by Pittsburg and he felt intimidated by the new found show of force by the horse patrol. Someone heard him say, "they can't stop me from getting on the field" so he drove 20 min to Essex Skypark, got his plane in the air and attempted to land on the field thru the open end of the horseshoe stadium. After his plane entered the stadium he realized that he wasn't going to be able to land on the field, so he pulled back on the stick, which stalled the plane and it crashed gently in the upper deck...quite the sight that day. 2 footnotes 1-previously this same drunk pilot got kicked out of Bill Pellingtons (another former Colt player) Iron Horse restaurant in Balto County one day and kinda did the same thing by throwing rolls of toilet paper in anger on this restaurant from this same plane months earlier...nuts! 2-if the game would have been closer in score many fans would have been injured that day, but being a blowout game, most fans had left early...yes it is great to hear Art Donovans voice in this video, fyi I had my wedding reception at Artie Donovans place 10yrs later...ah the good ol days
23 year old here, thanks for sharing this story. That’s truly wild to hear haha
@Suck AButt Not you specifically but you and people like you are the reason why this generation is so horrible. Can't appreciate anything.
So what is the status of this individual? Is he still living?
Good story but are you sure the pilot, Kroner attended the game? That's a new level of crazy if true.
@@JackLiberty0 He died in 2013 per wikipedia. Served 2 months of a 2 year sentence.
Wow Art Donovan giving commentary on a plane crash. I wish I knew about this clip years ago.
Who is here after watching after Dorktown?
Had the Steelers not blown out the Colts, people would have died.
Lol got this recommended to me after the Jon bois video. Very interesting.
I was 12yrs old when this game was played. Decorating my Christmas tree with my father when this happened. Funny how to remember this like it was yesterday.
With a name like Friedman you celebrated Christmas ? Interesting
The pilot only went to prison for three months for that stunt, it should have been much longer.
My Uncles sat two sections over...they were long gone by this time. The interesting part is if the game had been closer there would definitely have been 1000s in the stadium. The parking lot was set up to park cars bumper to bumper & it deterred people from leaving early.
It is ironic that the lopsided Colts loss, which certainly had to be crushing to the fans of a team that had done so well in the regular season, likely helped save a lot of people from serious injury or worse, like your uncles.
I was actually at this game and we sat in section 35 in the upper deck. The game was a blowout win for The Steelers so we left early in The 4th quarter and heard about the crash on the radio..
You were so lucky not to be there.. What was your reaction when you heard about this??
Imagine if the Colts had won. The fans wouldn't have left early!
That's an insane accident. Loved hearing Art Donovan!
Here from dorktown!
Jon Bois, Alex Rubenstein, and Dorktown brought me here to this.
So this pilot apparently was gonna do volunteer undercover work for the US government in South America? That's according to Dorktown, which cited Baltimore Sun clippings. What a wild story
Being a Steeler fan, I was at that game, in the endzone. It was crazy.
Wow
Art Donovan lol. "what's happening to our society"
Yes Art, it was EXACTLY like a kamikaze pilot. Perfect analogy.
Loved Art Donovan
In World War II, Art Donovan, a true hero, served on the USS San Jacinto, loading bullets into one of the 40 mm anti-aircraft gun. This is important, because the anti-aircraft guns were place at the very edge of the ship, almost floating near the deck with a bare minimum of structural support keeping the sailors from the waves below.
The San Jacinto narrowly avoided two separate kamikaze attacks. Kamikazes were not good at damaging fleet carriers, battleships, and cruisers, but they were great at killing American sailors. All of the sailors who served on large ships in 1944 and 1945 were in the crosshairs of multiple kamikaze pilots, and it was often on there minds both during and after the war.
Like, Donovan immediately talking about kamikazes really makes sense.
@@Bigchet1223Me too, he was the best guest Letterman ever had. 😊
I lived at 3402 old York Rd one block from there when that happened I was 10 years old. I am now 54
Dorktown!
People getting Pilot out of plane is unheard post 9/11 you hear plane crash you get away from it
Who else was brought here from Dorktown?
Secret Base Dorktown (Jon Bois) brought me here. Way to go Bradshaw with a perfect passer rating.
I was at this game with my father and we stayed for the entire game and just left our seats when the plane crashed. We were sitting a little above where the plane crashed and we still don't know if we would have been hit. We had seen the plane circling but didn't know what was happening. We still talk about this tragedy to this day and am so thankful that we didn't win because as we all have said, a lot of fatalities would have occurred.
The Plane looked to be as battered as the Colts after they were crushed by the Steelers. Ironically the plane was Blue and White, the Colts colors.
Apparently Davis had to be sure to bring in Chuck to make things authoritative and reassuring. Lol Chuck gives us a description the way he calls the play-by-play on the field: accurate and colorful. “I said he’d never make it,” another broadcaster, possibly Davis, says as if he were describing an impossible field goal attempt in bad weather.
On a another note Franco Harris, Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert and others say that Steelers team was their best ever. They started out 1-4, then gave up 28 points......The last 9 games!!!!! Is that nuts??? Went 9-0 the rest of the year. Beat the Colts 40-14, but lost to the Raiders the next week without Harris and Rocky Bleier. This game was the day after the infamous Sugar Bear Hamilton- Roughing the Passer call on Stabler, which most agree was not. The Ref Ben Dreith pulled the flag too late. Raiders win 21-17. Pats outplayed them and their first chance to go to the Super Bowl was taken away.
@John James that 1976 New England would go on to be fondly remembered as the "Spirit of '76" Patriots team, and can arguably be considered the greatest of all the pre-Belichick seasons in Patriots history with a 11-3 reg. season record.
I was 15 and only had the game on in the background due it being a blowout. It was a big story at the time but almost no one remembers it now.
I was seven years old about to watch a Christmas special, when I remember WJZ-tv Baltimore showing this on the news
The fact that no one else was there to get hurt is nothing short of a miracle.
The fact that that asshole despite every attempt to kill himself survived, and got off easy... is a weird irony of life.
Several years later I knew the pilot. He was a real loon and this was no accident. He also "borrowed" a Greyhound bus from the company he worked for to move his furniture.😮
I watched this on the west coast and found out later that a reporter was calling it the miracle on 33rd street. I figured that the Colts came back then saw the photos and it was incredible.
Art "How Much Does This Guy Weight" Donovan was the color commentator for this game?!
The only good thing I would assume he lost his pilot license, if he didn't he must have friends in high places.
2:29 - Artie Donovan "What's happening to our society?" Thank God Artie's not around to see how f**ked up things are in 2023
The downside open door on the plane are at the seats that my ex and I had been sitting in for the game. At the time of the crash we were going to our Colts Corral bus for the ride back home.
I was there that day as a member of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band. I didn't see it actually crash, but saw it shortly afterwards. It was crazy! We were changing into our street clothes and someone came in telling us a plane just crashed. We all came running out to see this sight!
Oh, they were the days, my friend. Good times.
Secret Base did an amazing deep dive on this story. Just crazy.
I was almost 4 years old when this happened & I remember everyone making a fuss about it. I didn't understand what had happened since I was only a child. But amazingly. I remember it ! :O
Good one, Epp!
Do you have the complete game radio broadcast? I had this recorded on cassette, but haven't been able to find it in years. Art Donovan's color commentary is awesome. I'd love to combine this broadcast with the video of the game that has surfaced in recent years.
Yes, I have the full broadcast. I won't be uploading to YT the whole game but I'll see what I can do later on to provide an upload link elsewhere.
@@epaddon, thank you. Please keep me posted. IMO, the local commentary was vastly more entertaining than that of the TV broadcast crew.
Hi, @@epaddon. Just following up to see if you still have plans to upload this broadcast? I'd like to dub it with the TV broadcast.
@@mcmillenandwife I don't plan on uploading it to my YT channel, but you're free to download the audio here from Dropbox. Since it's not my own personal recording, it's perfectly fine for you to do anything you want with it in a new presentation. www.dropbox.com/s/8zqdo5yfwhhx8fz/1976-12-19%20Pittsburgh%20vs.%20Baltimore%20%28AFC%20Divisional%20%232%29%20%28WCBM%29.mp3?dl=0
Fantastic! Thanks,@@epaddon!
This happened about almost a week before I was born.
art donovan - "How much does this airplane weigh?"
History's stupidest pilot. I was at that game, and it's probably good that we got waxed. Otherwise the party would have been on & casualties would have been high. We found out when we got to GF's home.
6:05 a year later they would make it into a movie
4 months later, to be exact. czcams.com/video/Vzk3XZQMI88/video.html
Can’t even imagine someone doing this today with intent to take lives.. it would be so devastating
To be fair, this wasn't intentional, the pilot was just an idiot.
The pilot didn't intend to kill anyone based on what I know but was still incredibly reckless and irresponsible
Why didn’t Art Donovan ask how much did the pilot weigh? Or how much does the plane weigh?
How much does that plane weigh_ Art Donovan
Art Donovan: "How much does that plane weigh?"
The game was a blowout so everyone left
What ever happened to Donald Kroner?
steelers beat them so bad they crashed a plane into the stadium, sore losers lol. (this is a joke im glad no one was hurt).
Driving the plane?
Better then flying a car.
I was at that game I was 13
I was 25. Came from Pittsburgh to watch this
Mayday mayday mayday
"Fatso" on the scene!
"Good, good. Now, you see that stadium over there? If you could crash into that stadium that would be great."
"This kid's a natural! You want to be a pilot when you grow up?... Shame, maybe in the next life, eh? Maybe in the next life! ALLAH!"
i was there also.. we were leaving when the crash happened.. the guy was drunk lol
The pilot survived, but he, unfortunately, was kind of a piece of shit... However that was a preexisting condition.
It sounded like the pilot was certifiably crazy.