Howard L. Kastel '54 was acclaimed as a hero yesterday for saving a 10 month old girl from a burning plane. John E. Snell '53, was also aboard the Royal Air Coach C-46 which burst into flames while taking off on a non-scheduled flight from Chicago's Midway Airport.

"I noticed that sparks were coming from the right engine," Kastel said, according to yesterday's Boston Globe. "We had gone about 150 yards from the airport when we started down hard. . . We bounced, dodged some houses, and crashed into a haystack."

Hearing Mrs. Theresa Archer of Westville, N. Y., screaming "My baby, my baby!" in the darkened plane, he turned around and snatched up Irene seconds before the fire broke out and the plane exploded.

Kastel's Massachusetts Hall roommates, when interviewed, said that he was an athletic fellow. They do not expect him back until Monday.

Roommate's Warning

Lon E. Curtis '53, the Lowell House roommate of the other Harvard man aboard the plane, stated yesterday, "I warned him not to fly." Curtis said that he had little faith in "non-scheds" (chartered flights). Snell is unhurt and may be back today.

The crash of the ill-starred C-46 is reminiscent of the Seattle disaster two years ago when a chartered DC-3 flipped into the ice at Boeing Fild and killed 11 Yale students returning from their Christmas holidays. None of the 49 passengers, many of whom had been vacationing in the West, were hurt yesterday.

Kastel lauded the pilot, Marvin Staddon of Maybrook, N.Y., for his handling of the careening craft. "The pilot of that plane deserves every bit of credit for the way he got us down safely," he said. The plane came to rest just before a small bungalow occupied by several persons.