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To mark the disaster, an official memorial was unveiled at Green-Wood Cemetery. It features the names of all the victims and a story of the day's events.

The 1960 crash of a United jet and a TWA propeller plane killed 134 people, including six on the ground. It was the worst aviation disaster at the time.

"I remember vividly the day and all those memories are coming back. It also serves as a retrospective of my life in many ways. That was a demarcation point," said Doug Petersen, whose father was killed in the crash. "I remember feeling at the time that I was really out on my own, because my father and I were extremely close, and I remember staring at the front door for three or four months, thinking that he was just going to walk through."

"We received word by phone that he was on the plane, and my parents were both alive at the time, he was the youngest son of a family of 13," recalled Jane Flood, whose brother Vincent died in the crash.

The United DC-8, which was on its way from Chicago to what is now John F. Kennedy Airport, crashed into a busy commercial strip on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope Brooklyn. Ten buildings were destroyed.

The TWA Constellation, which was en route from Ohio to LaGuardia Airport, crashed into Miller Field, a military air base on Staten Island.

The new memorial is located a short distance from what was an unmarked grave containing unidentified remains from the crash. It was discovered by the cemetery's genealogist over the summer, launching the historic cemetery's effort to establish the memorial.

"I knew the community had wanted to do something for years, so we just picked up the ball and made it happen, now that we had such a direct connection to what happened that day,” said Richard Moylan, president of Green-Wood Cemetery.

"I just couldn't believe that something like this was even remembered, and the people are getting together to commemorate it,” said Craig Ewart, whose father died in the crash.

A touching moment during Thursday's ceremony came when a letter was read from the brother of 11-year-old Stephen Baltz, the only person not killed immediately in the collision and crash. The letter said Stephen told his father at the hospital ‘Daddy, next time I fly, I want to fly my own plane, I want to be the pilot.’

Baltz died the next day.

The crash was the first where investigators relied extensively on information from black boxes. It also spurred a revamping of the air control system to prevent future tragedies.