Fifty years to the day, after the long day the injured survivor of Piedmont Flight #349 spent cold and alone on Buck’s Elbow Mountain, he’s coming back to commemorate the event and remember his fellow passengers who weren’t so lucky.
Ernest Philip “Phil” Bradley plans to host a ceremony at 10am on October 31 at the site of the memorial he had constructed a decade ago in Mint Springs Valley Park, just 500 yards from the Albemarle County crash site.
Flight 349 crashed around 8:40pm on Friday, October 30, 1959. All 26 others aboard died, but after 36 hours alone on the mountain, he was found Sunday morning by rescuers.