Eastern Air Lines Flight 537

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Eastern Air Lines Flight 537
Douglas C-54 Eastern Air Lines (4590434096) .jpg

An aircraft of the same construction from Eastern Air Lines
Accident summary
Accident type Airplane collision in the air
place Washington National Airport , United States
United StatesUnited States 
date November 1, 1949
Fatalities 55
Injured 1
1. Aircraft
Aircraft type Douglas DC-4
operator Eastern Air Lines
Mark N88727
Passengers 51
crew 4th
Survivors 0
2. Aircraft
Aircraft type Lockheed P-38 Lightning
operator Fuerza Aérea Boliviana
Mark NX-26927
crew 1
Survivors 1
Lists of aviation accidents

On November 1, 1949, a Douglas DC-4 collided on Eastern Air Lines Flight 537 with a Lockheed P-38 Lightning , which was on a test flight by the Bolivian Air Force. The collision occurred around 11:46 a.m. local time, about eight hundred meters southwest of the threshold of runway 03 at Washington National Airport at an altitude of about 300 feet (100 meters). All 55 occupants of the DC-4 were killed in the accident and the test pilot of the P-38 was seriously injured. Among the victims was Congressman George J. Bates , the magazine's cartoonist The New Yorker Helen Hokinson and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy .

the accident

A Lockheed P-38 Lightning

Eastern Air Lines' Douglas DC-4 ( license number : N88727) operated a scheduled flight from Boston , Massachusetts to Washington, DC . There were 51 passengers and four crew members on board. The Lockheed P-38 (registration number: NX-26927), piloted by the Bolivian military pilot Erick Rios Bridaux, completed a test flight before delivery to the Fuerza Aérea Boliviana .

The tower crew on duty that day testified that the P-38 had lifted off runway 03, made a left turn north of the Pentagon , circled over Arlington and then returned due to engine problems and requested permission to land. The air traffic controller instructed the Bolivian pilots in a left traffic pattern to screw. However, it flew to the south side of the airport and turned into a long direct approach, at the same time as the DC-4 began its shorter final approach. The air traffic controller radioed the crew of the civil aircraft and ordered them to turn left. The DC-4 began making a left turn when the P-38, which was flying much faster, caught up with the aircraft about 800 meters southwest of the threshold of runway 3.

The DC-4 was torn apart by the left propeller of the P-38 just in front of the edge of the wing. The rear section of the plane crashed on the west bank of the Potomac River ; other parts were later found at the Potomac Railroad depot and a nearby highway . The front part of the aircraft fell into the river, as did the Lockheed P-38.

Accident investigation

Erick Rios Bridaux, the pilot of the P-38, contradicted a large part of the statements of the tower crew before the investigators of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). He stated that he did not take off from runway 03, but from runway 36. In addition, he was in constant contact with the tower under the callsign Bolivian 927 and he would have been given specific clearance to land on runway 03. The testimony of the air traffic controllers on the tower and a military controller following the radio traffic on the frequency at Bolling Air Force Base , as well as several other inconsistencies in Rios' testimony, led the CAB to abandon the P-38 pilot's version. Because Rios spoke and understood English well , it was not assumed that language difficulties played a role in the accident.

The CAB found that the primary suspected causes of the accident were the pilot's decision to land without proper landing permission and his inadequate general vigilance in looking for other air traffic. The CAB also found that the controllers on the airport tower had failed to inform the pilots of the Douglas DC-4 earlier about the developing critical situation. However, the report noted that due to the position of the P-38, even if the civilian pilots had been warned earlier, it might have been too late to avoid the collision, as Rios' actions would have left them only a few seconds to turn.

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