detonated or that a building's boiler had exploded. The TWA plane crashed onto the northwest corner of Miller Field at , with some sections of the aircraft landing in New York Harbor. At least one passenger fell into a tree before the wreckage hit the ground. There was no radio contact with traffic controllers from either plane after the collision, although LaGuardia had begun tracking an incoming, fast-moving, unidentified plane from Preston toward the LaGuardia "Flatbush" outer marker. Investigation The likely cause of the accident was identified in a report by the US Civil Aeronautics Board: Initial survivor The only person to initially survive the crash was Stephen Baltz, an 11-year-old boy from Wilmette, Illinois. He was traveling unaccompanied on Flight 826 to spend Christmas in Yonkers with relatives. He was thrown from the plane into a snowbank, where his burning clothing was extinguished. Although alive and conscious, he was severely burned and had inhaled burning fuel. Baltz died of pneumonia the next day. Legacy The total of 134 victims would not be surpassed until a Lockheed C-130B Hercules was shot down in May 1968, killing 155 people. In terms of commercial aviation, the death toll would not be surpassed until the March 1969 crash of Viasa Flight 742, which crashed on takeoff and killed all 84 people on board the aircraft, as well as 71 people on the ground. In 2010, on the 50th anniversary of the accident, a memorial to the 134 victims of the two crashes was unveiled in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn. The cemetery is the site of the common grave containing the remains of those who could not be identified. The collision is covered in "Collision Course," the fifth episode of the first season of The Weather Channel documentary series Why Planes Crash. See also List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft Jonas Kamlet, a chemist who died in the crash 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision, another mid-air collision, also involving United Airlines and Trans World Airlines aircraft References External links Pillar of Fire: Recalling the Day the Sky Fell, December 16, 1960 by Nathaniel Altman, from the Park Slope Reader U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board Aircraft Accident Report Accident description TWA Super Constellation L-1049 N6907C Accident description United Airlines DC-8-11 N8013U Pre-crash photo of N6907C Death in the Air, Time, 26 December 1960. Newsreel film footage of crash Nelson, Libby. "The Boy Who Survived a