Eastern Air Lines Flight 853

Eastern Air Lines Flight 853
	A Lockheed Super Constellation
Accident summary
Accident type	Airplane collision in the air
place	Carmel , New York
date	4th December 1965
Fatalities	4th
Injured	49
1. Aircraft
Aircraft type	Lockheed Super Constellation
operator	Eastern Air Lines
Mark	N6218C
Departure airport	Logan International Airport
Destination airport	Newark Liberty International Airport
Passengers	49
crew	5
Survivors	50
2. Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 707
operator	Trans World Airlines
Mark	N748TW
Departure airport	San Francisco International Airport
Destination airport	John F. Kennedy International Airport
Passengers	51
crew	7th
Survivors	58
	Lists of aviation accidents

On December 4, 1965, a joined Lockheed Super Constellation of Eastern Air Lines on the Eastern Air Lines Flight 853 from Boston to New York on Carmel , New York , with a Boeing 707 of Trans World Airlines on the Trans-World Airlines -Flight 42 from San Francisco to New York combined, killing four occupants.

Crews

The crew of the 707 consisted of the 45-year-old flight captain Thomas H. Carroll, the 42-year-old first officer Leo M. Smith and the 41-year-old flight engineer Ernest V. Hall and four flight attendants .

The crew of the Super Constellation consisted of the 42-year-old flight captain Charles J. White, the first officer Roger I. Holt, Jr and the 27-year-old flight engineer Emile P. Greenway and two flight attendants.

Planes

The affected aircraft of Trans World Airlines was a three-year-old Boeing 707-131B with the air vehicle registration N748TW that with four turbofan engines of the type Pratt & Whitney Jt3d was appointed and its first flight was completed on 14 April 1,962th

The affected Boeing 707

The affected aircraft of the Eastern Air Lines was a twelve-year-old Lockheed Super Constellation 1049C with the air vehicle registration number N6218C, with four piston engines of the type Curtiss-Wright 972-TC-18-DA 3/4 equipped.

course

The 707 took off from San Francisco at 9:05 a.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST) (5:05 p.m. UTC ), climbed to cruising altitude , flew over Sacramento , Reno , Sioux Falls and finally at 3:48 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) ( 8:48 p.m. UTC) Buffalo at an altitude of 37,000 ft (11,280 m ) and sank to 25,000 ft. (7,620 m) under the supervision of the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center (New York ARTCC). The pilots of the 707 were then given clearance to descend to 21,000 ft. (6,400 m) and 11,000 ft. (3,350 m) as well as the elevation data from John F. Kennedy International Airport. Finally, at 4:17 p.m. EST, the pilots of the 707 reported an altitude of 11,000 feet (3,350 m). The 707 was flying from the northeast towards the Carmel VORTAC .

At 3:38 p.m. EST, the Super Constellation took off from Boston, rose to an altitude of 10,000 ft. (3,050 m) and held it. At 4:18 p.m. EST, the New York ARTCC air traffic controller observed that the Super Constellation was flying in the direction of the Carmel VORTAC and noted this on a control strip . When the Super Constellation emerged from the clouds, the first officer saw the 707 from his point of view at 2 a.m. (front right) and drew the pilot's attention to this. Since the two pilots of the Super Constellation believed they were on a collision course , they withdrew the control horns to avoid the 707.

In the 707, after seeing the Super Constellation at 10 o'clock (front left), the pilot deactivated the autopilot by flipping the associated switch on the control horn. The captain and first officer first turned the control horns to the right so that the 707 rolled to the right, and then pulled them backwards, causing the 707 to accelerate by 2.5 g . When the captain of the 707 realized that the planes couldn't avoid each other this way, he decided to turn the control horn to the left and push it forward instead.

Before the aircraft could react, the collision occurred at 4:19 p.m. EST. The left wing of the 707 hit the horizontal stabilizer of the Super Constellation, as a result of which the 707 lost 7.6 m of the left wing up to engine no.1 (far left) and on the Super Constellation the housing of the hydraulic reinforcement was thrown out and the control cables to the stern were torn . While the 707 went into a steep dive , the Super Constellation initially continued to climb. Four red warning lights flashed in her cockpit , indicating a drop in hydraulic pressure . The flight engineer warned of the falling hydraulic volume and hydraulic pressure. Eventually the Super Constellation went into a left-facing dive, exceeding normal operating speed. Since the altitude control was defective, the flight attitude could only be regulated by changing the thrust : when the thrust was increased, the aircraft nose rose ; if the thrust was reduced, it went down.

The flight captain informed the passengers about the collision and explained that he could no longer control the aircraft and that they should prepare for a crash landing. The flight attendants asked the passengers to remain seated and to fasten their seat belts . The seat belt sign had already been switched on before the collision. They should also read the safety alert cards. At 4:21 p.m. EST, the Super Constellation's flight engineer made a distress call at an altitude of 7,000 feet and reported that the aircraft had collided and was out of control. Finally, through experimentation, the pilots found a thrust setting with which a reasonably acceptable rate of descent of 500 fpm (approx. 0.8 m / s) at a speed of 125–140 kn (230–260 km / h) could be maintained.

The Super Constellation flew over Danbury Airport, Connecticut , but at 2,000-3,000 feet (610-915 m) it was too high for a landing approach . Therefore, the pilots decided to make an emergency landing in the open. It was made more difficult by the fact that the area was largely forested and the few fields were enclosed with stone walls. Eventually, Captain White discovered a pasture on Hunts Mountain near North Salem , where Fox Lane Farm was located. He instructed the passengers to remove all sharp objects from their pockets, tighten the seat belts and use the brace position . By asymmetrically changing the thrust, the aircraft was placed in a left turn and thus brought on the approach course. Immediately before impact, the pilots increased the thrust to raise the aircraft nose.

The Super Constellation hit a tree and then a second tree with its left wing, causing it to demolish. The aircraft hit the ground at 4:28:15 p.m. EST, approximately nine and a half minutes after the collision, skidded 700 feet up the 15% slope, and finally came to a halt. The plane caught fire after the impact and was destroyed. All occupants, with the exception of one passenger, whose seat belt had jammed, escaped from the wreck. Flight captain White, who had survived the impact without serious injuries, went into the passenger cabin to rescue the passenger who had remained in the aircraft; both died from breathing fire gases before they could leave the plane. Two passengers died from their injuries after the accident in the hospital.

The 707, however, remained controllable and was brought back under control. The pilots contacted the New York ARTCC and received vectors and clearance to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport . During this time, the pilots declared the emergency, called rescue workers and the fire brigade and reported that the left wing end was missing. They then made a large 360 ° turn to make sure the landing gear was extended and landed safely on runway 31L of the airport at 4:40 p.m. EST .

root cause

The cause of the collision was found to be that the pilots of the Super Constellation believed they were at the same altitude as the 707 and thus on a collision course due to an optical illusion caused by an upward sloping cloud bank, which is why they reacted incorrectly. The fact that the Super Constellation was flying in the direction of the sun was excluded as an accident factor, as it did not dazzle and therefore neither sunglasses nor glare protection were required.

Others

The 707 was repaired after the incident and put back into service. It was scrapped on July 7, 1982 .