Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 3
| Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 3 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) An identical aircraft of the company |
|
| Accident Summary | |
| accident type | controlled flight into terrain |
| location | Clark County , Nevada , United States |
| date | January 16, 1942 |
| fatalities | 22 |
| survivor | 0 |
| aircraft | |
| aircraft type | Douglas DC-3 |
| operator | Transcontinental and Western Air |
| Mark | NC1946 |
| departure airport |
Nellis Air Force Base , United States
|
| destination airport |
Lockheed Air Terminal , Burbank , United States
|
| passengers | 19 |
| crew | 3 |
| Lists of aircraft accidents | |
On January 16, 1942, a Douglas DC-3 on Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 3 flew into a mountain after taking off from Nellis Air Force Base . The Transcontinental and Western Air (T&WA) machine was on a scheduled transcontinental flight from New York to Burbank with scheduled stops at Indianapolis , St. Louis and Albuquerque . Due to the high take-off weight, additional refueling was required in Las Vegas that day. All 22 occupants were killed in the accident, including the Hollywood-Actress Carole Lombard .
inmates
On the flight leg from Albuquerque to Burbank there were 19 passengers and three crew members on board the Douglas DC-3, which had been delivered brand new to T&WA on March 3, 1941.
The 33-year-old actress Carole Lombard , one of the biggest Hollywood stars at the time and known from comedies like My Man Godfrey , boarded the plane in Indianapolis with her mother Elizabeth Knight Peters and her agent Otto Winkler. Lombard was returning from a tour of the Midwest and was in Los Angeles to see her husband Clark Gable again. The tour, which also promoted war bonds , raised more than two million US dollars. After the stopover in Albuquerque , Lombard and her companions were asked to disembark to make room for 15 members of the United States Army Air Corps on the final leg to Burbank . However, Lombard persuaded those in charge to be able to stay on board as she was equally important through her war tour. As a result, four other passengers had to abandon the plane, including violinist Joseph Szigeti .
There was also a crew change in Albuquerque. Wayne Clark Williams (41) served as captain, Morgan Atherton Gillette (25) as co-pilot, and Alice Frances Getz (21) as flight attendant .
the accident
Because the start from St. Louis was delayed by almost two hours and further delays had occurred on the transcontinental route, the machine arrived in Albuquerque three hours late at 4:06 p.m. Traditionally, this airport was the final stop on the scheduled route from New York on the east coast to Burbank on the west coast . On this day, however, the machine had only been refueled with 1325 liters of fuel due to the high take-off weight in Albuquerque, which made an unscheduled refueling in Winslow (Arizona) necessary on the last leg.
The DC-3 took off from Albuquerque at 4:40 p.m. After almost an hour of flight time, Captain Williams radioed company headquarters in Burbank if they could refuel at Nellis Air Force Base instead of in Winslow . Appropriate approval has been granted. The aircraft landed in Las Vegas at 6:37 p.m. and, after refueling, took off at 7:07 p.m. for the onward flight to Burbank. The pilots initiated the climb to the approved cruising altitude of 2440 meters (8000 feet ).
About 15 minutes after takeoff, the Douglas DC-3 struck a mountainside below the summit of Potosi Mountain at an altitude of about 2345 meters MSL (7700 feet), killing all 22 on board. The distribution of the debris indicated that the machine was still in a slight climb or already in level flight at the time of impact. The accident site was almost 11 kilometers (6.7 Statute Miles ) north of the prescribed flight route. The first rescue workers did not reach the scene of the accident until around 9:00 a.m. the next morning.
cause of accident
Due to the potential danger of Japanese air raids, almost all radio beacons west of Las Vegas were shut down when the USA entered the war . Among the few facilities still active was the Daggett omnidirectional beacon in San Bernardino County (California), on which the crew had to direct their course. For this it was absolutely necessary to maintain a heading of 210 degrees after take-off in Las Vegas. According to eyewitnesses, the plane flew west in a straight line north of the usual flight path.
On the flight plan filed in Las Vegas , which had been filled out by the co-pilot and signed off by the captain, the crew had entered a planned heading of 218 instead of 210 degrees. The scene of the accident was oriented 215 degrees to Las Vegas Airport, indicating that the pilots were likely navigating the course plotted in the flight plan. This brought the machine north of the prescribed flight path over mountainous terrain with peaks up to 2500 meters high.
Investigators from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) considered it possible that the pilots mistakenly used the heading that would have to be followed from Boulder City to the Daggett beacon. This corresponded to 218 degrees. The captain, and especially the co-pilot, had flown far more westbound flights from Boulder City in the past than those from Las Vegas.
literature
- Matzen, Robert. Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3 . Good Knight Books ( Pittsburgh , 2014)
web links
- Information about TWA Flight 3
- Bodies of 22 Airplane Victims Found Accident sequence description and list of passengers and crew from the Montana Standard , Jan. 18, 1942; accessed 25 Dec 2020
- Article about the crash in Time Magazine , January 26, 1942
itemizations
- ↑ a b c d e f Official Investigation Report: CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD, Accident Investigation Report, File No. 119-42, July 16 1942 ( Memento des Originals from June 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 35° 57′ 5″ N , 115° 29′ 28″ W