— hidden stories blog —
episode 001 — The Drunk Man Who Landed a PLANE on the Streets of NYC... Twice
On the night of September 30, 1956, a 26 year old man named Thomas Fitzpatrick, without having a nice casual night out with the boys at a bar in New York City. When he decided to make the completely outlandish bet as drunk guys tend to do. He told one of his friends, I bet if I drove home right now to Emerson, New Jersey, I can make it back to New York City from there in just 15 minutes. Now, since the distance Thomas is referring to was around a 45 minute drive, a minimum. His friend immediately started calling his bluff, saying, No way, it's not possible. He would literally have to be maintaining a speed of a hundred miles per hour through traffic throughout the entire trip to make that time, which obviously wasn't going to happen. And at the end of the day, since Thomas was just a human and obviously couldn't teleport or fly, his friend couldn't see any possible way, any possible scenario with Thomas could actually pull this off. I mean, what was he going to do, steal a plane and fly it over while drunk? Well, actually, yeah, that's exactly what he did. Thomas Fitzpatrick was born in New York City in 1930. Even from a really young age, he was already showing signs of being an extremely risk seeking and rebellious child. I mean, when World War Two began raging on in its early teenagers, he desperately wanted to fight. He wanted to serve his country. But unfortunately, since the age requirement for enlisting at the time was 21 years old, much older than he was, he just wasn't allowed to do so. However, he apparently just did not care what he was allowed or wasn't allowed to do because he just lied about his age and then joined the Marine Corps at age 15 fighting on the Pacific Theater. Incredibly, despite his young age and lack of experience, Thomas not only survived the war, but apparently actually did well, and he was honorably discharged from the Marines a few years after the war ended in 1947. Now, if he had been traumatized by his experience of getting shot at and fighting at such a young age, he didn't show it. He's immediately after he enlisted in the U.S. Army and would then go on to fight in the Korean War. Here, it seemed like once again, he was never one to shy away from conflict. According to one report, he was eventually wounded while driving an ammunition truck to rescue some American soldiers trapped by communist fire. As a result, he received a Purple Heart and would eventually return back to civilian life after his term of service. Now, at some point during his time in the military, Thomas became really interested in becoming a pilot and flying. As such, he decided to enroll in the Tutor Girls School of Aeronautics in New Jersey and soon got his pilot's license. But even though he did have formal training, there were no reports of him ever being a prodigy or having an insane amount of experience before it. He attempted a stunt. But despite that being the case, Thomas himself apparently did strongly believe that he had some sort of insane and maybe even generational talent when it came to flight, which can be seen earlier by how willing and confident he was to make his bet. And as you'll soon see, he may have been right that night at the bar. After Thomas, his friend, agreed to his bed again because he was very likely fully convinced that this feat that Thomas had described simply couldn't be done. Thomas immediately left and drove back to New Jersey. Upon arriving, he went back to his old flight school and borrowed one of the single engine system 140 plates before flying off with it. But upon arriving back to New York City, he was shocked or as shocked as he could have been while intoxicated to see that the place he had intended on landing in this large open field at a nearby high school wasn't lit up at night. And since Thomas, this guy Thomas, was flying without using any of the lights or radios on his plane, he couldn't see a thing, and he simply had no way of actually landing there. But with no time to spare. Thomas immediately homed in on a different landing spot, the middle of St Nicholas Avenue, the narrow street directly in front of the bar. He'd been drinking at earlier. And despite the fact that this was literally New York City with high buildings everywhere in lampposts and parked cars on both sides of the street since it was 3 a.m. at the time and there weren't actually any moving cars. He decided to go for it. And as I mentioned earlier, he really might have been right about the big natural odd flying thing because despite the structures, despite the darkness of the night, despite the fact that he was thought to be drunk at the time, he managed to perfectly thread the needle and nail an unbelievably precise landing. When local residents woke up the next morning and saw this massive plane just sitting on the streets. They straight up thought it had to have been some sort of elaborate prank. It had to have been as a kid, him. Sam Garcia, who lived nearby, put it. I thought maybe they had trucked it in as a practical joke because there was no way a man had landed. And then there were st. In fact, even after everyone realized that it in fact had not been a prank and someone had actually illegally and irresponsibly stolen this plane before landing it here in this dangerous, crowded area, they still couldn't help but be impressed at how perfect the landing was. The New York Times reported on the incident by describing it as a feat of aeronautics and a fine landing. People traveling to work, although annoyed that the road was blocked, marveled at how such a large plane had ever gotten there. Even the police invest still getting the incident, who are all highly suspicious of Thomas's claim that he had had engine troubles and had been forced to land. There were completely shocked at the feat when Sergeant Harold Berens of the Police Aviation Bureau going so far as to describing the odds of nailing a landing like that as being 100000 to 1 as everyone could clearly and instantly tell, even the smallest mishap, the smallest muscle twitch could have caused that plane, the crash. The street was just that congested. And when Thomas eventually admitted that he had actually done the stunt to win a bet and win, it also came to light that he had been wrong while doing it. The owner of the plane Thomas had taken was so impressed he would go on to decline to press any charges. Although Thomas did still have to pay an $100 fine or about $1,000 today because landing a plane on a busy road is still illegal. Unfortunately, he didn't have to spend a single day in jail, which, if you think about it, is completely crazy. Now, I promise you, if this story hadn't been fairly well documented with photos and everything, if I'd been sitting here in front of you telling you about it, there is a really good chance you wouldn't believe me. I can't even believe you wouldn't believe me either. It's just the stories. Just that. Unbelievable. So it's no surprise that two years after Thomas landed the plane in 1958, when he was retelling the story at a bar or two of the stranger he had just met, the guy looked at him like he was completely crazy. He simply refused to believe that Thomas had truly squeezed the plane on twin New York City Street, and Thomas was once again very drunk. Figured he would just have to prove that guy Robert Thomas of the Stranger to drive him back to New Jersey. And once he had arrived, once again, he borrowed a Cessna 140 plane from his old flight school for taking off from New York City. And once he had arrived, did it again. Once again, he precisely and perfectly navigated the plane through all the buildings and parked vehicles. And this time, since it was only one M moving vehicles as well. And although one or two drivers had to slam their brakes to avoid crashing into Thomas's plane, he was ultimately able to once again nail the seemingly impossible feat without a scratch, dent or bump on either his plane or anything else around it. Just take a second to really think about how much skill it must require to literally land a plane onto a narrow and packed New York City street. Thomas did this twice. How drunk. That's not long after he had landed his plane, this time on the intersection of Amsterdam and 187th Street, Fred, in front of a Yeshiva University building. Thomas quickly realized that unlike his first rodeo this time, there were actually witnesses, tons of them who had seen his face and what he had done. Likely an only sobering up and remembering this pilot's license had actually been suspended after his first flight. He realized he would almost certainly be going to jail this time if caught and realizing the sheer gravity of his situation, Thomas quickly fled from the scene, although everyone was frankly even more impressed that Thomas had been able to perfectly pilot this 100000 to 1 odds, landing twice in a row while drunk. This time around, unfortunately, people were a lot less concerned with the act itself and more concerned with the fact that Thomas might continuously do this over and over again in the future, if not post putting people's lives at risk each time. Although at first, Thomas tried denying that he was even responsible. It's really funny, actually, but he basically just willingly walked into the police department and was all like, Oh, I just happened to be in the area. And I heard that the police wanted to speak to me about something. What could that be? What did they want to speak to me about? But the police were basically like, Dude, who else could have pulled this off? And with the sheer amount of witnesses also coming forward to testify against him, Thomas eventually admitted to the crime. In the end, he was charged with grand larceny, dangerous and reckless operation of a plane, making an unauthorized landing at city limits and flying without a valid license. And he was sentenced to six months in prison. As far as I'm aware, he never flew again. After serving his sentence, he would go on to settle down with his wife Helen, and have three sons with her. And on September 14, 2009, at 79 year old Thomas Fitzpatrick passed away from cancer. Now the heightened security around planes following 911, it's likely that Thomas's stunt will never be replicated again. He was truly an insanely talented pilot and managed to pull something off just absolutely legendary, something that will be ingrained in American history for generations upon generations to come. But hey, obligatory warning here. This is not a sign for you to just go out and spit up your own ridiculously dumb ideas, as I mentioned earlier. One slight mishap from Thomas in a story could have gone in a completely different direction. You could have ended countless lives, including his own. I mean, yeah, it's a really good story, but just try to take care of yourself and stay away from irresponsible pet stares and challenges like this. They really can be just extremely dangerous. With that being said, I hope you enjoyed today's story. If you did, please stick to opportunity to just tap that tiny thumbs up and below me. 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