P a ge 10 t opside V olume 79 , I s s u e 4
Aviation
Auxiliarist Explores the Jet in the Woods by William " Bill " Fithian , DSO-AV Auxiliary District 5NR
Nothing quite captures the imagination than discovering the ruins of a lost military jet fighter . Recently COMO Joe Giannattasio discovered just such an aircraft hidden away in the wilds of Passaic County , NJ , seemingly just left behind and forgotten in the hilly northernmost part of the state .
When he was attending university in northern New Jersey , Giannattasio took introductory flight instruction at a nearby airport and recalled local pilots telling stories of a military jet that crashed in the heavy forest area of the region long ago .
William “ Bill ” Fithian District Staff Officer - AV
Now a co-pilot in the Coast Guard Auxiliary Fifth Northern ' s Air Program and an avid aviation enthusiast , Giannattasio set out with a fellow adventurer in October to find the lost jet fighter . Far from the closest town and a long hike from the nearest road they bushwhacked through thick foliage and swampy mud until they found the skeletal remains of a Marine Lockheed T2V-1 Seastar where it still exists today , nestled in a remote and marshy patch of the West Milford forest .
Remains of the crashed military jet in the Passaic County forest Photograph by COMO Joe Giannattasio
The aircraft was a carrier-capable jet trainer for the United States Navy that entered service in 1957 and powered by a single jet engine . According to newspaper articles from the period , in 1967 while flying a training mission out of Brooklyn ’ s Floyd Bennett Field the jet had a flame out and plunged . Amazingly , despite the ejection system failing , both pilots survived the crash and were found standing near the wreckage by the first responders on scene .
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