Flight 23 was America’s first air terrorist attack
And for 85 years has remained unsolved
Chesterton, Indiana farmers Joseph Graf, Marion Arndt and John Lichinski were playing cards at Graf’s home on Route 1 just outside of town at about 9:00 p.m. on October 10, 1933 when they heard a “terrific explosion” which sounded to them like a bomb. They rushed outside and saw an airplane in the sky about 100 yards southwest in a steep dive, its motors roaring uselessly. In the darkness all three men saw cabin lights. When the plane disappeared behind some trees and struck the ground there was another ear-splitting explosion and a ball of flames.
George McNathan, who lived a little further down Route 1, near Valparaiso, noticed something a little different. While going out to the barn at 9:00, he heard the hum of an airplane motor from the east and looked up. Noting nothing unusual, as the plane was flying in a standard route, he almost gave it no more thought when suddenly he watched a ball of fire burst from the middle-rear of the plane, followed by a huge detonation that literally shook the ground around him. After the blast the plane made a counter-turn northward and dove directly down in an easterly direction and crashed upside down and nose first into the ground, sending a fireball 100 feet in the air. The crash scene was beside a gravel road about 5 miles…
