BLOSSBURG, Pa. -- Fifty years have passed since a plane crash took the lives of nearly three dozen people in the Twin Tiers.
On June 23, 1967, Mohawk Airlines Flight 40 took off from Elmira Corning Regional Airport. It crashed shortly after, near the town of Blossburg in Pennsylvania, killing all 34 people on board.
The crash has been called Mohawk Airlines' worst disaster. Decades later, dozens came from near and far to pay their respects during a special memorial service at Island Park -- including Marion Branson, who came all the way from Texas to honor her husband who died in the crash.
She says she sent him off on a work trip that day, not knowing she would never see him again.
"It came time for him to be there in the late afternoon, and he didn't show up. We waited and waited. We had only been married 10 months at that time, so it was very much of a shock," said Branson.
Marion says her husband did leave her with a miracle: She found out she was pregnant just days after the crash. She says he has been her rock over the years, and he even came with her on this trip.
This summer, a stone monument honoring the 34 victims will be unveiled at Island Park. A stone monument honoring the victims will be unveiled later this summer.