Trans-World Airlines Flight 260

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Trans-World Airlines Flight 260
MillsField-4martin (4395667839) .jpg

A Martin 4-0-4 of the TWA
Accident summary
Accident type Controlled flight into terrain after instrument failure
place Sandia Mountains , New Mexico , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
date 19th February 1955
Fatalities 16
Survivors 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type United StatesUnited States Martin 4-0-4
operator United StatesUnited States Trans World Airlines
Mark United StatesUnited States N40416
Departure airport Albuquerque Municipal Airport , New Mexico , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
Destination airport Santa Fe Regional Airport , New Mexico , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
Passengers 13
crew 3
Lists of aviation accidents

Trans World Airlines Flight 260 (flight number TW260 , radio call sign TWA 260 ) was a scheduled flight of Trans World Airlines from Albuquerque to Santa Fe . On February 19, 1955, the Martin 4-0-4 N40416 of Trans World Airlines had an accident on this flight when the machine flew into the Sandia Mountains shortly after take-off . All 16 people on board were killed in the accident. An instrument failure was later identified as the cause of the accident. It was the first incident with both fatalities and a total loss of a Martin 4-0-4 machine.

plane

The machine was a Martin 4-0-4 with the serial number 14120 , which was designed for 40 passengers in its configuration. On May 27, 1952, the machine was delivered to Trans World Airlines and put into operation with the aircraft registration number N40416 , the name Skyliner Binghampton and the fleet number 416 . The twin-engine short - haul aircraft was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp propeller engines.

Passengers and crew

The flight from Albuquerque to Santa Fe had taken 13 passengers. The crew was three:

  • The 44-year-old flight captain Ivan Spong was trained as a TWA pilot from 1942. After the Second World War he was promoted to flight captain. Spong had also been used by the airline on intercontinental flights. He flew the route from Albuquerque to Santa Fé for the twelfth time that day.
  • First Officer James Jay Creason had worked for the airline for three years and was very familiar with the Albuquerque to Santa Fe leg. He had flown it 32 times by the time of the accident.
  • Sharon Schoening, who had worked for the TWA since 1953, was on board as a flight attendant.

the accident

The plane was to be used on a flight to Kansas City that day . The first flight segment should consist of a 26-minute flight from Albuquerque to Santa Fé. The pilots received at 07:03 a release to the start of runway 35 and for instrument flying northward along the airway Victor 19 . The pilots were asked to report when flying over the reporting point Weiler . The take-off was at 7:05 a.m., after which a right turn was flown to follow the ILS Localizer Backbeam course, on which the machine was to ascend northwards towards Santa Fe to 9,000 feet above sea level. The transmission lobe of the localizer could not be received. The machine flew into a cloud front and continued its course in a northeasterly direction directly towards the Sandia Mountains (elevation 10,678 feet). At first it seemed as if the pilots were aware of their plight and as if they had tried to turn back to the lower-lying area of ​​the Rio Grande Valley west of the mountains. Captain Spong made a 180-degree turn to the northwest, but could not pull the engine high enough. The machine flew at 7:13 am on the east side of the "Dragon Tooth" against a steep granite cliff when it was on an almost westward course back to Albuquerque.

Search and recovery of the machine

The location of the accident site was initially not known after the machine disappeared. The aircraft was last seen at an estimated altitude of 3,000 feet above sea level (8,300 feet above sea level) prior to its disappearance as it climbed at a shallow angle at high speed. The machine continued its course in the direction of the Sandia range of hills, the upper part of which was covered by clouds. On Sunday morning, February 20, the wreck was discovered by James R. Bixler, who repeatedly circled his plane over an area of ​​the Sandia Mountains where he suspected the missing machine. The search for the wreck involved hundreds of people from the local police station, the Federal FBI , the Civil Air Patrol ground team, the 44th Air Rescue Unit at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver , Trans World Airlines and the military. Two craftsmen, Frank Powers and George Boatman, who were part of a group of private individuals trying to reach the crash site, were the first to get on the machine. The Martin was at the eastern foot of the mountain where it was pitched. The site was 9,243 feet above sea level, just below the ridge of the Sandia range of hills, approximately 13 miles northeast of Albuquerque Airport, and almost directly on a straight course of 030 degrees from the departure airport.

root cause

The Civil Aeronautics Board investigated the circumstances of the aircraft accident. The final accident investigation report was published on October 12, 1955. In this report, the accident was attributed to a "failure to follow the prescribed route procedures" and a "deviation from the airways". Further investigation was requested due to controversy over some passages of the report. On August 26, 1957, a revised accident report was issued by the CAB. Due to further developments, the CAB published an amendment to its revised report from August 1957 on June 15, 1960.

One of the controversies had been that the first accident report implied, or at least made plausible, pilot suicide by Captain Ivan Spong. Research by the pilots' association ALPA identified a stuck course top as the cause of the accident .

Commemoration

In 2006, 51 years after the accident, a memorial was built at the accident site.

There is a geocaching cache that explains the circumstances of this incident.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ICAO Aircraft Accident Digest 8, Circular 54-AN / 49, Montreal 1958 (English), pp. 13-15.

Coordinates: 35 ° 11 ′ 38.4 "  N , 106 ° 26 ′ 31.2"  W.