In 1956, a 26-year-old man named Thomas Fitzpatrick stole a plane from a New Jersey airport, flew through New York City, and made a perfect landing on an uptown Manhattan street, all while drunk, fulfilling a barroom bet. Two years later, he successfully performed the same feat, and again, he was intoxicated.
Thomas Fitzpatrick was born in New York City in 1930. During World War II, he served in the Marine Corps. He was honorably discharged from the Marines and went on to join the U.S. Army, where he served in the Korean War.
He was wounded during the battle and received a Purple Heart. Eventually, he returned to civilian life, but he was restless and craved adventure.
Somewhere along the way, Fitzpatrick developed an interest in being a pilot. He enrolled in flight school at the Teterboro School of Aeronautics in New Jersey. He was working as an airplane mechanic by the time he was 26.
On September 30, 1956, Fitzpatrick was having drinks at a bar in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights. Later in the evening, he drove to his flight school, snagged one of the single-engine planes, and flew it back to the bar.
Fitzpatrick reportedly tried to land the plane in a nearby park at first. However, it was too dark to see, so he took to the street instead. Around 3 a.m., he made a drunken but precise landing on St. Nicholas Avenue in front of the bar.
In the morning, residents awoke to find a small plane parked in the middle of the street. According to resident Jim Clarke, Fitzpatrick had made a bet with someone in the bar that he could be back from New Jersey in 15 minutes.
Despite the dangerous stunt that Fitzpatrick pulled, people couldn’t help but be amazed. He had practically done the impossible—landing perfectly in a narrow street surrounded by lamp posts, tall buildings, and cars. The New York Times called it a “feat of aeronautic wonder.” Even the police were impressed.
Initially, Fitzpatrick told the police he had landed in the street due to engine troubles, but he later admitted that he had done it as part of a bar bet. Sergeant Harold Behrens of the police aviation bureau said that the odds of such a landing were 100,000 to 1.
sborisov – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
If that wasn’t baffling enough, Fitzpatrick accomplished the same landing again two years later. On October 5, 1958, he landed an aircraft on Amsterdam Avenue near 187th Street. Then, he jumped out of the plane and fled the scene, but later, he turned himself in.
He told the police that he had performed the second flight because a bar patron from Connecticut refused to believe he had done it the first time. After the first flight, Fitzpatrick was charged with grand larceny and for violation of the city’s administrative code.
The grand larceny charge was dropped because the plane’s owner declined to sign a complaint, and he only had to pay a $100 fine.
But the second time around, he didn’t get off so easy. He never renewed his pilot’s license after it got suspended the first time. He was slapped with a number of charges and sentenced to six months in jail.
Fitzpatrick had three sons and was married to his wife, Helen, for 51 years. He died in 2009 at the age of 79. He will always be remembered for this truly awe-inspiring feat.
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