U.S. Ambassador to Russia Laurence Steinhardt on phone at his desk in Spaso House which was formerly the Ambassador's private residence, but is now the American Embassy's HQ.
While serving as the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Laurence Steinhardt was killed in a plane crash on March 28, 1950. The two-engine C-47 transport plane caught fire just a few minutes after taking off from Ottawa en route Washington, D.C. It was carrying six people when it crashed into a snow-covered farm just eight miles southeast of Ottawa, leaving only one survivor, who parachuted out of the plane. The 57-year-old Steinhardt reportedly refused to jump. Steinhardt had previously served as ambassador to Peru, Turkey, the USSR and Czechoslovakia.