At lunch several weeks ago, I told a story of a B-25 that crash-landed at Lunken Airport in the 1960s with a cargo of wild reptiles, snakes and alligators. Some of these guys were old hands at Lunken, but they simply didn’t believe me.
It was way back when the original control tower was still in the main terminal building, manned by a bunch of really great FAA controllers, and the tower chief was a good friend, Wes Schaeffer.

![Dealing With Some Cold-Blooded Cargo Firefighters prepare to unload these four trussed alligators from the B-25 bomber that crash-landed at Lunken Airport in 1963. [Credit: Fred Straub/Cincinnati Inquirer]](https://tbh.express/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Dealing-With-Some-Cold-Blooded-Cargo-768x518.jpg)