Plane Crash at Fairfield County Infirmary

FCI from rear field/cemetery

If you were a resident (or inmate, as they were called) of the Fairfield County Infirmary in Ohio, chances are, you probably witnessed some weird stuff. Serving as the county poor house, orphanage, and overall place to house people who couldn’t take care of themselves since the mid-1800′s, FCI now operates as a premier destination for those interested in haunted history. But, not all the strange stories that come from the old brick building are paranormal in nature! 

For today’s blog, I wanted to continue to share some of the non-spooky, yet fascinating history from the grounds of the Fairfield County Infirmary, including an incident that happened in the autumn of 1950:

On Thursday, October 5, 1950, a Cessna plane owned by Baker Aviation Corp was being piloted by 23 year old Robert W. Brocklesby, of Caledonia. The only passenger aboard the small aircraft was a 22 year old medical technician working at Marion City Hospital, named Barbara Ann Beck. According to the pilot’s parents, Brocklesby became lost when he couldn’t find the local airport. The reason he couldn’t find the local airport was that there were absolutely no lights on at all, indicating where the runway was. After trying to find the airport for some time, the plane ran out of gas and Brocklesby crashed the plane in a hard, forced landing….in the field across from the Fairfield County Infirmary! 

The plane was returning to Marion from Detroit, and unfortunately, Barbara was injured in the landing, suffering a broken vertebra. She was treated in a local hospital until October 21, then released to her parents’ care. 

Luckily, this accident was not as bad as it could have potentially been…but I can’t imagine what was going through the minds of the ‘inmates’ as they heard, then watched all of this unfold on their property. Many of FCI’s ‘inmates’ were elderly and/or feeble-minded. This was also 1950. A plane crashing so close by, even by today’s standards, would be a scary experience. Back then, those people probably thought the world was coming to an end! But, again, luckily no one was killed or injured too badly. The mayor made sure new bulbs were ordered for the local runway, and the cornfield crash became just another wild event in a long history of strange and unexplained events that have made FCI the awesome place to investigate that it is today!

From the October , 1950 edition of the Marion Star: