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Holdcroft, Virginia

Charles City County, Virginia geography stubsUnincorporated communities in Charles City County, VirginiaUnincorporated communities in VirginiaUse mdy dates from July 2023

Holdcroft is an unincorporated community in Charles City County, Virginia, United States. Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashed in Holdcroft on January 18, 1960. Piney Grove was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Holdcroft, Virginia (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Holdcroft, Virginia
The Glebe Lane,

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Wikipedia: Holdcroft, VirginiaContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 37.365555555556 ° E -76.935 °
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The Glebe Lane 19327
23030
Virginia, United States
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Capital Airlines Flight 20
Capital Airlines Flight 20

Capital Airlines Flight 20 was a U.S. scheduled passenger flight from Washington, D.C. to Norfolk, Virginia. A Vickers Viscount flying the route crashed into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, on January 18, 1960. The accident was the fourth fatal crash involving a Capital Viscount in less than two years; the first three were Capital Airlines Flight 67 (April 1958), Capital Airlines Flight 300 (May 1958) and Capital Airlines Flight 75 (May 1959). The plane was cruising at an altitude of 8,000 feet when it encountered icing. This caused two engines to fail. As the craft descended, the other two engines also failed, causing the propellers to autofeather. The crew tried and failed to restart the engines, and were unable to unfeather the propellers normally; they then put the plane into a dive in an attempt to force the propellers from their feathered position. Eventually they succeeded in restarting engine number four. They applied full power to this engine, which caused the craft to enter a circling descent until crashing into trees; at the time of impact it had almost no forward velocity. Five trees were driven through the fuselage, yet their trunks remained intact. The plane burned for hours after the crash, the police said at the time. They also indicated that they had not been able to approach it to make an effort at recovering bodies. In addition, treacherous underfooting made the use of firefighting equipment almost impossible. Heavy fog had closed many airports throughout eastern Virginia and had blanketed the area when the plane bearing 44 passengers and a crew of four came down on swampland near Sandy Gut, a tributary of the Chickahominy River about 30 miles southeast of Richmond. The plane was flying from Chicago to Norfolk - where the airport was open - by way of Washington. It had left Washington at 9:40 p.m. and crashed at 11 p.m. Capital Airlines in Washington identified the jet-prop aircraft's crew as Capt. James B. Fornasero, pilot; Philip Henry Cullom, first officer; and two hostesses, Diane Margaret O'Donnell and Brigitte Friede Helene Jordt. The crash was attributed to the fact that, as per airline policy, the pilots had delayed arming the engine ice protection systems even though they were flying in icy conditions; causing the 2 engines to lose too much power. Capital Airlines changed its emergency checklist after the crash, deleting the instruction that pilots were to descend to a warmer climate to relight the systems and instructing them that, provided that correct procedure was followed, the engine could be restarted at any height.

Diascund Creek
Diascund Creek

Diascund Creek is the major tributary of the Chickahominy River in Virginia, part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The creek flows south and forms the border between New Kent County on the west and James City County on the east. In 1963, an earthen dam was constructed across the creek above Lanexa to create a 1,100 acre reservoir for Newport News Waterworks. The only public access directly to the creek is from Diascund Reservoir Park part of James City County's park system. There are also access points for members of local civic associations on both sides of the tidal creek. Since at least colonial times, the creek has been bridged at Lanexa where U.S. Route 60 crosses it. During the Revolutionary War British troops destroyed American naval supplies which were stored there on the night of April 22, 1781.In 1881, the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad bridged the creek further downstream as part of its Peninsula Extension. A bridge crossed the major channel to Hicks Island and a causeway connected the island to the eastern bank. The Diascund station was built just to the east. The Lanexa station was to the west. In the 1960s and 1970s, the subdivisions of The Colonies and Cypress Point were developed on the lower, tidal, section of the creek adjoining the Chickahominy River. Motor boating and waterskiing are popular on this section of the creek. Waterfront homes and erosion caused by the wake of the motor boats have altered the creek's shoreline and adjoining marsh lands. This effect was aggravated by the growth of hydrilla and other invasive submerged aquatic vegetation. Carp were introduced into the reservoir in 2013 to combat the invasive weed. This has led to a dramatic decline in the hydrilla, both in the reservoir and in the tidal creek, but native marsh plants have not taken its place.