Ask Caray: Why is there a wrecked plane along Lexington Road?
A mysterious plane crash along Lexington Road has been the subject of rumors for decades.
You may or may not have seen it, but it's been there for many years—the tail of a small plane. But how did it get there?
In the early 1980s, what appeared to be a plane crash materialized in the hillside behind Distillery Commons on Lexington Road. But here's the thing, there wasn't actually a crash.
It was a marketing stunt to promote a new bar called Cliffhangers.
"It was a big outdoor entertainment nightclub and bar. We bought that plane at an airplane junkyard up in Indiana," said Ward Plauche.
That was 40 years ago, so the details are a little foggy for Plauche.
Plauche says he and his former business partner paid just a few hundred bucks for the wrecked plane.
"We were just playing around and said what if we do this? How do we promote this? Let's put a plane in the hill and call it Cliffhangers," he said. "We made up a whole narrative about a guy named Cliff who flew the plane. It crashed there. It was part of the PR to promote the thing."
And it caused quite the stir.
"Everybody thought it was a real plane crash," Plauche said. "People started seeing it and calling in emergency calls... there's a plane crash on Lexington Road. [Of] course you know within about an hour it was on the news. It was well worth the promotional value."
While the bar is gone, the plane is still there, now covered in graffiti and hard to see in the warmer months when the foliage is full. But it still catches a lot of attention.
