The 1960 New York air disaster was of one the worst airplane crashes in history, killing 127 air passengers and five more on the ground. It occurred on December 16, 1960, when two planes collided over New York City in a driving snowstorm.

While approaching New York Idlewild Airport in Queens (now John F. Kennedy International Airport), a United Airlines DC-8 from Chicago collided with a TWA Super Constellation from Columbus, Ohio. Afterwards the United jet careened into the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, demolishing an apartment building and a church (ironically named the Pillar of Fire Church). Meanwhile the TWA plane crashed mainly on Staten Island, with some sections landing in New York Harbor. The only survivor of the tragedy was 11-year-old Stephen Baltz of Wilmette, Illinois, who was thrown into a snowbank. He later died in a local hospital.

The cause of the crash was eventually determined to be the TWA pilot losing his way in the snowstorm.