WROTEN ISLAND, Md. - The mysterious plane crash on Wroten Island that WBOC reported back in November of 2018 is now being told publicly for the first time in 65 years.
After the original story aired, WBOC received an email from one of the previous owners of Wroten Island. After meeting with that man, Philip Inglehart and longtime friend, Michael Keyser the mystery unfolded on camera.
Michael, son of the original owner Fenwick Keyser, was able to retrieve an old article his father had written about the plane crash. Fen and some friends had formed "The Wroten Island Hunting Club." Some of the club members, including Fen, were sitting in their duck blinds on Wroten Island when the Naval aircraft crashed through the trees.
"A disabled navy jet plane swooped down onto unihabited Wroten Island, near Hoopersville, Maryland yesterday and tore a 200-foot swath through the trees and was demolished. The pilot walked away unhurt," the article said.
Fen's documentation revealed that the plane crashed on Nov. 27, 1953.
"[Fen] was out shooting and this plane came down through the trees and crashed in the woods, the marsh. Then he ran over there with some of his friends and the pilot was out there and was okay," Michael said.
Fen's article said the pilot, Lt. Commander Kenneth D. Smith was able to walk away unhurt from the crash.
"Lieutenant Commander Kenneth D Smith was quickly rescued by a helicopter from the Patuxent Naval Air Station where he is assigned to the service test division," the article said.
Michael recounts that a few days after the crash, on December 1, 1953 the Navy came back to Wroten Island to pick up any important items from the TV-2 aircraft.
"My father and some friends and whoever took whatever was left that was worth while on the plane. The seat, the raft, my father brought back the flight manual," Michael said.
Fen would later sign a document that Michael was able to show WBOC that shows he gave the Navy permission to leave the body of the aircraft on the island. And Michael said that's how it went on for years.
"And then it just sat there, it was always an item of conversation. When people came to the island that hadn't been there before, 'oh yeah, the plane crashed over there, yada yada yada," Michael said.
Eventually, after Fen passed and others took ownership of the island, Inglehart assumed the rold of head honcho. Inglehart said he's not surprised that no one knew about the story behind the crash.
"Nobody really talked about it beyond, because what was on the island stayed on the island," Inglehart said.
As the story that was only able to be told from above, now surfaced on Delmarva.
