Former Midwest City housing area (Midwest City, Oklahoma)

USA / Oklahoma / Midwest City / Midwest City, Oklahoma
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This area used to be a neighborhood with many Tinker AFB personnel. Sometime in the early 1960s, a fighter aircraft crashed into the housing area and the Air Force determined that the houses were too close to the end of Runway 17. The properties were condemned, the houses were sold and moved. Midwest City fenced the area off and now uses it a municipal storage and training area.
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Coordinates:   35°26'32"N   97°22'55"W

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  • No, TAFB never owned this neighborhood. And there was more than one crash. This area was just a normal neighborhood of Midwest City. Most of the houses were moved - not torn down. I don't know who paid for the relocation. TAFB, if it does not now own, at least administers the property. It is fenced and, from what I've seen, is used for military exercises. At one time you could drive around in there after the houses were removed. Very spooky, especially at night. I'm not real clear about the number of crashes. Maybe someone can add more. Maybe someone can add more detail.
  • Actually, Oklahoma County bought out the homeowners in the early 1970's. The homes were then auctioned off and moved.
  • There were 2 airplane crashes in the 60s - one was a terrible crash in early 60s - small fighter plane crashed - burned 8-10 houses - killed 3 or 4 residents - burned one child badly.
  • I was only six or seven years old but remember I believe two aircraft crashed on a sunday morning . I was at church with my parents and we all ran outside to see what had happened. This was in approximately 1963 or 1964
  • I lived in Midwest city when the jet crashed into the street of Furgeson Drive .It hit 2houses from us and but'm rd several down 2 pilots ejected into the grade school
  • I grew up in that housing area. An F4 Phantom supposedly had an engine flame-out north of TAFB. This particular Phantom was a 2-seater; what we were told was that the pilot bailed out, and the co-pilot saw Glenwood Elementary School just before he was supposed to bail out. He turned the jet slightly SE, and the jet's first impact point was at the intersection of Palmer and Ferguson Drives. It proceeded SE and impacted 2 houses. The co-pilot was dead at the scene. The city of Midwest City said at the time that residents voted unanimously to sell their homes. My mother told me many years later that it simply wasn't the case; county supervisors told residents they could either sell their homes or the county (Oklahoma County) would condemn them. Very few people wanted to move - in fact, several married couples who had lived in the housing addition since it was built in the 40's reportedly died as they were very attached to their property, and lost a lot of money by being forced to relocate. As my dad used to say "we all knew the risk." He used to say the noise from landing and departing aircraft was "the sound of freedom!"
  • I lived on Ferguson Drive (833) at the time of the last crash. The one that hit on Palmer, If I remember right 1 blk. west of the school. I was in Kindergarten at the time at Glenwood. I remember we used to walk straight N on the street in front of the school right to our driveway. Back then things were different. I don't remember the crash and going home. My mother said the initial reports were that the Plane had hit the school and all the parents were very panicked. So she is heading to pick me up and I'm just walking home with an older neighbor just like any other day. And when we got home there was Fire trucks and Air force trucks in front of our house. I was told one of the Empty drop tanks that the pilot dropped landed in out front yard! I wish I could find pictures or old news reports about the incident. We were one of the 1st families to sell out when we started hearing rumors about the big buy out. I also remember that when they tried to move the house out when it got up onto 15th St. Just as it crossed the R/R tracks it collapsed because of termite damage.
  • I am currently researching a book on the F-100 Super Sabre and I want to include a chapter on the Glenwood additon. As I have been researching the book I have come across some comments about Glenwood which are just plain wrong. 1. Glenwood was never military housing. It was always civilian housing. They were small frame homes and several of the original homes still exist on the far Western edge of the neighborhood along South Midwest Blvd between SE 15th and SE 29th streets. 2. Both aircraft which crashed into Glenwood were F-100 Super Sabres. The first was on August 25th, 1961. It crashed into the 300 block of Ferguson Dr. killing two children. The aircraft, a F-100D, was from the 342nd Day Fighter Wing, Myrtle Beach South Carolina and the pilot ejected to safety. The second from the Kansas Air National Guard, McConell Air Force Base, Wichita, Kansas was on October 7th, 1969 and it crashed into the 700 block of Bowman Dr. The plane was an F model which was capable of carrying 2 crew members and one ejected to safety and the other died in the crash, a 23 years old Lieutenant. Three homes were destroyed and no one one the ground was killed. These were the only aircraft to have ever crashed into Glenwood. One writer claimed a B-52 and an A-10 crashed into Glenwood which did not occur. 3. May 8, 1973 a county wide bond issue vote was held to purchase all the property in the Glenwood addition. This occurred after the U.S. Air Force threatened to close the base if the houses were not removed. In total 836 homes and an elementary school were removed. Several businesses were also removed. 4. One individual stated she had tried to locate information on the crashes. It must be stated the military had a very high aircraft accident rate at the time the crashes occurred. Additionally the Air Force does not keep individual accidents on file unless the crash was significant and the crashes occurred almost 50 years ago. 5. The city of Midwest City retained control of the land into the 1980's, the property was then given to Oklahoma County and the county in turn gave the property to the Federal Government sometime in the 90's which in turn made the are part of Tinker Air Force Base. I could have put more information in about this but I hope this will clear up some misconceptions. Additionally I have lived in Midwest City almost my entire life and know the history of the city fairly well.
  • Terry, I grew up in the Glenwood addition, 1232 Glendale Ave, later changed to Dr. This was at the corner of Glendale and Ferguson. I thought the first crash was around 63 or so, I remember it was in the summer and happened sometime in the afternoon, as we were watching tv in my house when we heard the boom. I also remember everyone in the neighborhood went outside and walked to the crash site. There was this bizarre rain of thin aluminum floating down. The family whose house the plane crashed into were relatives of the Coles who lived across the street from my family. I saw the second plane crash as I was walking home from high school. It destroyed the house next door to family friends. The story that Tinker would close if the area wasn't turned into a greenbelt was just that, a story. I knew of no one who wanted to leave the area. We all knew the risks. I got a little notoriety when at a community meeting held in the Glenwood Elementary I told the mayor and other city and county reps that I hoped they burned in Hell for stealing our homes from us.
  • I was 8 years old, out riding my bike when I saw people bailing from a plane. I lived on Shortway Drive, one street from Ferguson on the other side of the railroad tracks. I then saw the heard explosion, and saw red flames and huge cloud of black smoke from the crash. I rode over on my bike to see what happened. It was the most horrific image of my childhood, seeing the burning homes. I'll never forget the thick smoke and ashes everywhere.
  • It wasn't base housing, the area was one of the neighborhoods developed by W.P. "Bill" Atkinson in MWC known as the "Glenwood Addition." I ought to know, I still live in a house originally purchased from Atkinson by my parents in 1954. The plane crash happened in 1971. It was a two-seater Navy Jet fighter who was headed into Tinker to refuel. Upon approach, the engines died and it was going to crash: The pilot hit the eject button and only his ejection seat worked, it was the co-pilot who was basically stuck and he is the one who radioed in - My God, it's a school" and then he pulled the plane into a steep bank to the left to avoid hitting the school and the playground. I know, I was there on the top athletic field of the playground directly under the plane as it went overhead and crashed a few blocks away. The pilot crashed into the roof of a house nearby and broke his leg. The co-pilot was burned to death in the crash. Several years later you could still see the marks on the concrete on the street where the plane had hit and bounced into a nearby house. Two houses were destroyed and remarkably no one other than the co-pilot was killed. (The people who owned the house where the plane rammed into were in the process of moving in and had left to get another load of belongings, they did lose their dog in the incident however.) Now, here's what happened that day that made it far less of a catastrophe. The reason I was on the Playground, along with every other kid in that school was because the crash happened just at the tail end of our annual fire drill, the one where the Fire Dept comes to monitor. Just as the plane crash, the firetrucks were actually pulling out of the school's parking lot and upon seeing what had happened were on the spot in probably less than 2-3 minutes. This kept the fire from spreading to adjoining homes, which would almost assuredly happened with even a 8 minute response time. They immediately moved to paint the roof on the top of the cafeteria with large reflective lettering that said "School." However, within the year among rumors of Tinker possibly closing as a result, the City of Midwest City passed a bond and most of the home owners were bought out and the houses moved or demo'd. That process took about 3 - 4 yrs. At first it was still open to the public as kind of a "park" (which was the original promise by the City Council) but not long after they sold the land to Tinker and the OK Nat'l Guard, was fenced in and used for training. The school ironically stood another 15 yrs or so from closure as they used it for training and storage until it deteriorated to the point they demo'd it as well. Today, it's chock full of deer, wild turkeys and the occasional coyote, skunk, etc.
  • This wasn't base housing. It was general housing for Midwest City... military and civilians. And it does not belong to Midwest City now. It is fenced off and has signs up saying that the land is the property of the Dept of Justice and that trespassing is strictly prohibited. Most days military vehicles go in and out of this property throughout the day and it appears some sort of obstacle or training course or something is set up along the railroad tracks in the summer with individuals in military uniform going through it. Try again wikimapia.
  • And it was 25 August 1961.
  • The school and one house were never moved, we use to drive back in there in the early 80's and the school building was still there city vans would come and go from it, like it was used for storage maybe and the house people had kicked holes in the walls and spray painted things all over, it was pretty creepy all the old driveways and the lots were all over grown
  • Christine, yes myself and siblings were residents there and also went to Glenwood. So long agp.
  • Yes, I lived there as well @ 724 e. Ferguson drive
  • Yes. Our neighbors were home owners. Some names: Blankenship, Cole, Ciker, Ball, Keepers, Frazier, McGeehee.
  • We lived on Ferguson and seen the jet fly over on fire. See the pilot eject chute opened but couldn't see him land. That plane hit several houses on Ferguson I think 4 and killed people don't remember how many.
  • 1961 jet crash About 3:45 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, 1961, 1st Lt. W.H. Barbour, of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing stationed at Myrtle Beach Air Force Base in South Carolina, took off from Tinker Air Force Base Midwest City, OK in an F-100 Super Sabre fighter jet freshly loaded with 1,800 gallons of fuel. The 27-year-old pilot barely got off the ground before the jet lost directional control, and he bailed out at 800 feet after trying and failing to steer the aircraft back to the base. The jet, determined to have been disabled by a fire in the fuselage, crashed directly into a house at 325 Ferguson Drive. The explosion destroyed the house, killing 2-year-old Tibbie Lynn Tuttle; her 4-year-old sister, Judith, died the next day. Fire swept the block, engulfing seven other houses and injuring several other people. Barbour's parachute landed him two blocks away. "If I could have stayed aloft one more second, the plane would have missed hitting the houses," Barbour said that Saturday. "In 20 more seconds, it would have made the runway." A spokesman for the Air Force noted that while Tinker was one of the "least congested" Air Force bases, officials were growing uneasy with residential areas directly in any bases' flight paths.
  • 3000 Ferguson Drive Midwest City North End of Tinker United States Air Force Base - The father - it seems he was Don (?) Tuttle worked at Tinker AFB. His 10 year old son and wife received burns but they survived. there was a picture in The Daily Oklahoman with the F-100 Super Saber's Vertical (tail) Stabilizer leaning against our garage in the backyard at the rent house at 2709 Ferguson Drive . We moved out of the ferguson Drive rent house two days earlier and we were very fortunate. The Tuttle family was a sweet terrific family who were good neighbors. I remember the Beare Family South of us was also destroyed and many others - 7-8.
  • Did you know Peggy, Don, Jerry, and or Beau Newsom?
  • My name was Peggy Newsom and our family luv ed on Glendale Ave and went to Glenwood Elem. I was 12 when the crash happened and we had to leave our neighborhood because of the activity. It’s sad about the Tuttle children and we were all sad and in shock.
  • There was a reason it was called "Crash Acres."
  • I lived on Woodey drive was one of the first people to reach the pilot who bailed out and landed in the school yard. We heard the huge explosion and ran outside, I was about 8 at the time. The poor pilot tried so hard to make it to the runway and was in shock and horrified that the plane hit the neighborhood. Christine
  • I have looked everywhere and cannot find anything news related to this crash. It's weird, it's like they erased the whole thing. I have googled for hours and nothing comes up. Pretty weird.
  • it was not just military that lived in the subdivision, civilian families resided their as well, however, many of my neighbors were stationed at Tinker, my father was air traffic control so I think the story he brought home was probably pretty accurate, although I was only 9 and 10 I was one of the first people to reach the pilot who landed in our school yard. I can still see the shock on his face and his remorse and fear he had killed many. I am not debating your interpretation of what happened just saying I was there.
  • Oh my grandmother kept the original newspaper account of what happened and my sister who resides in Washington State still has it.
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This article was last modified 11 months ago