It was a tragedy that could have been avoided. An important passenger, a French count dressed in evening attire, persuaded pilot John Salway to continue to New York despite deteriorating weather conditions. According to a contemporary news report, Comte Henri de La Vaulx had a dinner engagement on April 18, 1930, that he did not want to miss. Originating in Montreal, the Fairchild 71 (NC9148) of Canadian Colonial Airways, the direct predecessor of Colonial Airlines, had stopped in Albany en route to Newark. That field was obscured by fog, and an attempt was made to land in a 'meadow', actually the grounds of a power plant, near Jersey City. The airplane's left wing clipped a mast supporting high-voltage wires and crashed. Salway, the distinguished count-a record-breaking balloonist-and the two other passengers aboard perished. It would be the last fatal accident of an aircraft of Canadian Colonial Airways or Colonial Airlines.
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