American Airlines Flight 1

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American Airlines Flight 1
Boeing 707-123B, American Airlines JP6855539.jpg

An identical American Airlines machine
Accident summary
Accident type Loss of control after excessive rudder deflection
place Jamaica Bay , New York City , New York , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
date March 1, 1962
Fatalities 95
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type United StatesUnited States Boeing 707-123B
operator United StatesUnited States American Airlines
Mark United StatesUnited States N7506A
Surname Flagship District of Columbia
Departure airport New York Idlewild International Airport , New York City , New York , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
Destination airport Los Angeles International Airport , California , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
Passengers 87
crew 8th
Lists of aviation accidents

The American Airlines Flight 1 (Flight number: AA1 , call sign: AMERICAN 1 ) was a domestic airliner of American Airlines . On the March 1, 1962 flight, a Boeing 707-123B crashed shortly after taking off from New York Idlewild International Airport . All 95 people on board were killed in the accident. In the course of the aircraft accident investigation, it turned out that the rudder of the crashed aircraft had been defective .

machine

In the crashed plane, it was a Boeing 707-123B that in 1959 in the work of Boeing on the Boeing Field in the State of Washington US was finally assembled than the 12 Boeing 707 from current production with the work number 17,633th The first flight of the machine took place on January 25, 1959, on February 12, 1959 it was delivered to American Airlines, where it went into operation with the aircraft registration number N7506A and the name Flagship District of Columbia . The four-engine long-range narrow-body aircraft was equipped with four Turbojettriebwerken of type -1-MC6 JT3D Pratt & Whitney facilities. By the time of the accident, the machine had had a total operating performance of 8,147 operating hours.

crew

Cockpit crew

The cockpit crew consisted of four men and consisted of a captain, a first officer, a second officer and a flight engineer:

  • The 56-year-old flight captain James T. Heist was hired by American Airlines on May 1, 1940. He held type ratings for numerous types of aircraft. Heist had 18,300 hours of flight experience, 1,600 of which he had in the cockpit of the Boeing 707.
  • The 35-year-old officer Michael Barna Jr. flew for American Airlines since January 12, 1953. Barna had type ratings for the aircraft types Boeing 707, Douglas DC-6 and Douglas DC-7 . For the position of first officer on board the Boeing 707, Barna qualified for the position of first officer on board the Boeing 707 on September 30. His total flight experience amounted to 4,800 flight hours, 900 of which he had completed in the cockpit of the Boeing 707.
  • Robert J. Pecor, 32, was Second Officer Robert J. Pecor with American Airlines on April 23, 1957. In addition to the Boeing 707, it was previously used on the Douglas DC-6. His cumulative flight experience was 3,400 hours in the air, 1,716 hours of which in the cockpit of the Boeing 707.
  • The 32-year-old flight engineer Robert J. Cain had been with American Airlines since June 16, 1952. His cumulative flight experience was 7,500 hours, of which 2,000 hours were completed on board the Boeing 707.

Cabin crew

The cabin crew was four and all female, it consisted of four flight attendants.

  • The 28-year-old flight attendant Shirley Grabow had been with American Airlines since December 7, 1960.
  • The 23-year-old flight attendant Lois Kelly was hired by American Airlines on February 24, 1961.
  • The 22-year-old flight attendant Betty Moore began her employment with American Airlines on November 17, 1959.
  • The 20-year-old flight attendant Rosalind Stewart signed her employment contract with American Airlines on September 12, 1961.

the accident

The pilots received clearance to take off from runway 31L for the scheduled non-stop domestic flight AA1. The aircraft took off at 10:07 a.m. local time after a 33-second take-off run when it reached a speed of 157 knots. The take-off and the initial climb initially appeared normal. After 8,000 feet of roll over the runway, approximately 100 feet above the runway and level with taxiway AA , a gentle left turn with a 15 degree roll angle was initiated on a course of 290 degrees. About 75 seconds after take-off, a tighter left turn was flown, with the machine apparently following the radar vectors transmitted by air traffic control. During the flight of the second turn, the climb was continued, the machine was aligned with a left roll angle of 30 degrees on a course of 140 degrees. During the turn, the roll angle gradually increased until it was around 90 degrees at an altitude of 1,600 feet. The aircraft then fell on its back with the aircraft's nose pointing downwards and at 10:08:49 a.m. fell with a pitch angle of 78 degrees and a course of 300 degrees into the shallow waters of the Pumpkin Patch Channel in Jamaica Bay , near the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge , a marshy nature reserve . The machine was completely destroyed in the impact and all 95 occupants were killed. The leaking kerosene ignited a huge fire.

Rescue operation

The rescue operation was joined by 300 police and fire fighters within half an hour of the crash, including 125 police officers who were attending a training course at the nearby police academy. Coast Guard helicopters were also used. No survivors were found. The fire was brought under control by 10:50 a.m. The ebb tide made it easier for the rescue teams to recover wreckage and body parts. Since only a few bodies remained intact, identification of the dead by relatives was later found to be inhuman, so fingerprints and dental examination reports were used for identification.

Accident investigation

The aircraft accident was investigated by the Civil Aeronautics Board . The flight data recorder was recovered on March 9th. At the beginning of July 1962, the investigators expressed the thesis that a missing split pin on the rudder mechanism could have caused the accident. As a precaution, all operators of the Boeing 707 have been informed of the possible danger posed by machines of this type. In the final report, the most likely cause was given as an automatic deflection of the rudder due to a short circuit in the wiring of the associated control mechanism. The investigators assumed that the damage had already been caused during the assembly of the machine at the Boeing plant. The malfunction then resulted in a side glide as well as a roll and yaw movement of the machine, which ultimately led to a loss of control.

Investigators came to this conclusion after touring a Bendix Corporation plant in Teterboro , New Jersey , where the wire harnesses for the rudder controls were manufactured. They watched workers use tweezers to twist bundles of cables together, damaging the insulation on the cables. Bendix Corporation denied that cables were damaged at their facility, emphasizing that the cables had undergone 61 inspections during the manufacturing process before they were shipped to Boeing, plus inspections during installation and maintenance. The company emphasized that if the insulation on the cables were broken at any time, the defect would have been discovered immediately and the cables would have been replaced.

swell

Coordinates: 40 ° 37 ′ 4 "  N , 73 ° 50 ′ 13"  W.