Runway 33 was the center of attention Wednesday at Bradley International Airport. Scientists and Archaeologists spent the day pouring through a pile of dirt extracted from the ground under the runway following years of research.
In 1941, Second Lieutenant Eugene Bradley crashed his plane during a training exercise in the woods north of the airport. His body was found strapped into his seat at the cockpit and subsequently removed along with most of the plane. The crater in the ground following the impact was filled in and never marked or documented. Some 65 years later researchers at the New England Air Museum were attempting to determine exactly where Bradley crashed.
The New England Air Museum made contact with Nicholas Bellantoni, the Connecticut State Archaeologist to see if he could help. Research indicated that the most likely crash site was paved over a few years after the crash and became the airport's crosswind runway. Bellantoni along with soil scientists from the Department of Agriculture extracted a soil sample from under runway 33 to look for clues.
The team sifted through soil Wednesday looking for metal or fabric for remnants of Bradley's plane. Samples of the soil were also taken in order to determine if there was any oil or hydraulic fluid which would indicate a plane crash. Though there was nothing conclusive Bellantoni thinks that this was indeed the site based on aerial photographs and radar evidence.
Bellantoni says the information will be used to close this chapter of Bradley's history, "7 million people a year go through the airport and maybe 7 know the story of Eugene Bradley."
