On the afternoon of Thursday, May 12, 1988, O'Connell students were sitting in their eighth period class counting the minutes until the bell ending the school day rang. However, a few short minutes before the bell signaling freedom rang, a voice came over the P.A. "Please remain in your class rooms until further notified. A plane has just crashed on the football field." The reactions varied wildly from amazement to worry. The people who undoubtedly had the most to way on the subject however were the 100 or so students who were having gym class out on the field that period "Everyone was pushing and panicking, screaming. It was like a dream, it was so unbelievable!" stated Sophomore Andrea Cooper.
O'Connell made the evening news as well as the newspapers the next day, and it was through these mediums that students most O'Connell earned what had happened. The plane was on business trip from Toronto to Raleigh, North Carolina, and was planning to refuel at National Airport. Edward Sanchez, the pilot and his passenger Dick Sheeringa told investigators that their gas gauges had indicated that a quarter of a tank of gas remained in the plane; enough to make it to National Airport, when the plane began losing power and altitude and was forced to crash land on field. Investigators later found that the tanks were empty. Sanchez was congratulated for his amazing landing as he managed to avoid hurting any of the students on the field. Eyewitnesses on the athletic grounds testified to the nearness of serious injuries.
"The plane was heading right for one kid'' said Coach Ed Iacobucci, ''I yelled, 'Get out of the way Michael.' It missed him by a couple of feet. Michael said he was going to church tonight." Said Sophomore Rosemary Pellegrino, "l was running right next to the airplane. I had to pull my friend down, the wing was right beside my face."
Happily enough, the near disaster remained only that. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured and the crash soon became the subject much humor. Undoubtedly, the story "the day the plane crashed at O'Connell'' will remain on the lips of the students, faculty and neighbors of O'Connell High School for years to come. Who ever said that nothing exciting happens at school?
- From the 1988 Bishop O'Connell Yearbook - The Shield (pgs. 314-315)