Trans-World Airlines Flight 891

Trans-World Airlines Flight 891
	An identical TWA machine
Accident summary
Accident type	Tank explosion from lightning strike
place	near Olgiate Olona , Italy
date	June 26, 1959
Fatalities	69 (68 according to the flight plan )
Survivors	0
Injured	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Lockheed L-1649A Starliner
operator	Trans World Airlines
Mark	N7313C
Surname	Star of Severn
Departure airport	Athens-Ellinikon Airport , Greece
1. Stopover	Rome Ciampino Airport , Italy
2. Stopover	Milan Malpensa Airport , Italy
3. Stopover	Paris-Orly Airport , France;
4. Stopover	Shannon Airport , Ireland;
5. Stopover	Gander Airport , Canada;
Destination airport	Chicago O'Hare Airport , United States;
Passengers	59
crew	9
	Lists of aviation accidents

The Trans-World Airlines Flight 891 (Flight number: TW 891 , call sign: TWA 891 ) was a line intercontinental flight of Trans World Airlines from Athens to Chicago with scheduled stops in Rome , Milan , Paris , Shannon and Gander . On June 26, 1959, crashed on this flight Lockheed L-1649A Starliner on the route from Milan Malpensa Airport to Paris-Orly Airport in Olgiate Olona off after lightning had struck in the machine. All 68 occupants on board the plane were killed in the accident, and the remains of an unborn child of a passenger and of another child were found.

It was the worst aircraft accident in Italy to date and the worst in 1959, as well as the first fatal incident involving a Lockheed Starliner.

machine

The machine was a Lockheed L-1649A Starliner with the factory number 1015 , which was built in 1957 and delivered new to Trans World Airlines on May 30, 1957. The airline registered the machine with the aircraft registration number N7313C . The four-engine long - haul aircraft was equipped with four air-cooled 18-cylinder twin star engines of the Curtiss-Wright R3350-988TC-18EA2 type, each with an output of 3450 hp (2540 kW). At the time of the accident, the machine had a cumulative total operating performance of 6671 operating hours.

Crew and passengers

The 50-year-old flight captain Paul S. Grade (born March 13, 1909) had 25,514 hours of flight experience, of which he had completed 682 hours in the cockpit of the Lockheed L-1649. The 44-year-old First Officer Harry Louis Stanton had a cumulative flight experience of 12,150 hours, 76 of which he had completed in the cockpit of the L-1649. 29-year-old first officer Frank William Ellis had 3,500 hours of flight experience, 382 of which he had in the cockpit of the Lockheed L-1649. The 40-year-old flight engineer John Victor Powell had over 9200 hours of flight experience, of which he had completed 609 hours in the cockpit of the Lockheed L-1649. The 41-year-old flight engineer Donald Albert Lueke had completed 9,606 flight hours, of which he had completed 658 hours in the cockpit of the L-1649. In addition, the 39-year-old second officer Jack Davis was on board.

The three members of the cabin crew, the 27-year-old flight attendant Marguerite Fay, the 23-year-old flight attendant Jacqueline Jaussen and the 38-year-old flight attendant Edmond Mouchnino, all had French citizenship.

On board the machine were 59 passengers from eight countries, most of them US or Italian nationals. Among the travelers was Maria Fermi Sacchetti, sister of the nuclear physicist and Nobel Prize winner Enrico Fermi .

Flight plan

Flight TW891 was a scheduled intercontinental flight from Athens-Ellinikon Airport to Chicago O'Hare International Airport . Along the route stops on were Ciampino Airport , the Milan-Malpensa Airport , the Paris-Orly Airport , the Shannon Airport and the airport Gander provided. The accident occurred on the third leg of the flight.

the accident

At 3 p.m. the plane from Athens-Ellinikon took off from Rome-Ciampino airport for the onward flight to Milan-Malpensa. The stopover took place at 16:36. When the plane took off from Milan-Malpensa airport at 5:20 p.m., there was light rain in the vicinity of the airport with low-hanging clouds that reached 2,000 feet. The visibility was about 3.2 kilometers. There were occasional thunderstorms.

Twelve minutes after take-off, the air traffic control crew reported their position and reported that they were climbing at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Structural failure occurred a few minutes later. The Starliner broke apart in midair. The wreckage fell within a radius of several hundred meters between Olgiate Olona , Marnate and Castellanza , about 12 km east of Milan Malpensa airport, killing all 68 occupants.

After the accident

Rescuers and firefighters arrived immediately who put out the fire but found no survivors. The search and rescue operation was made even more difficult by the difficult weather conditions.

In the hours after the disaster, some officials arrived, including the Archbishop of Milan, Giovanni Battista Montini , who later became Pope Paul VI, who blessed the site of the disaster. The funeral service took place in the Basilica of San Giovanni Battista in Busto Arsizio . The remains of the victims were buried in several cemeteries in the area.

Victim

Memorial in Olgiate Olona

nationality	Passengers	crew	unknown	total
United States United States	31	6th	-	37
Italy Italy	15th	-	-	15th
United Arab Republic United Arab Republic (Egypt) ¹	1	-	-	1
Israel Israel	1	-	-	1
United Kingdom United Kingdom	4th	-	-	4th
Germany Germany	1	-	-	1
France France	4th	3	-	7th
Chile Chile	2	-	-	2
unknown	-	-	1	1
total	59	9	1	69

root cause

One month after the disaster, the accident investigation, which was carried out by the Italian and US authorities on behalf of the TWA, was launched. The investigators hypothesized the cause of the accident:

lightning strike
Loss of fuel
bomb
Structural failure
Failure of the on-board power supply
Engine damage

Although the investigative work was made more difficult by the lack of a flight data recorder , which had not yet been introduced , the numerous eyewitness reports suggested that the cause was a lightning strike in an already highly electrically charged wing.

On November 24, 1960, the Italian Commission of Inquiry confirmed that a lightning strike had caused the machine to crash. The breakup of the machine in flight was due to the explosion of the fuel vapors contained in tank # 7 and the simultaneous destruction of tank # 6 or an independent, second explosion in tank # 6. In the absence of other indications, taking into account the stormy weather that prevailed in the area at the time of the crash, together with frequent electrical discharges (thunderstorms), it could be assumed that the explosion of the fuel vapors contained in tank no.7 was triggered by flashback in the outlet pipes . The gasoline vapors emitted from these pipes were said to have been ignited as a result of electrostatic discharges at the ventilation openings.

Controversy over the number of victims

According to the flight plan , there were 68 people on board the machine. However, different sources give 69 or 70 deaths. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that when the bodies were recovered, it was found that a passenger was pregnant and the fetus is counted as a victim in some sources. In addition, the remains of an approximately 2-year-old male toddler whose identity could not be established were found in the rubble . It has been suggested that a playing child was hit by the falling aircraft wreckage. Against this hypothesis, there were no missing persons in the area of Olgiate Olona. It is most likely that the child was taken on board unannounced.

literature

Alberto Colombo: Il disastro aereo del 26 July 1959 a Olgiate Olona . Macchione Editore, Varese 2008, ISBN 978-88-8340-367-5 .
Alberto Colombo: Settanta vite immortali: Volume commemorativo 50 ° Anniversario disastro aereo 26 giugno 1959 Olgiate Olona . Macchione Editore, Varese 2009, ISBN 978-88-8340-467-2 .

Remarks

¹The United Arab Republic sat from 1958 to 1961 from the two states Egypt and Syria together. Regardless of this, the civil aeronautics board's accident report stated the nationality of a crash victim as Egyptian.

swell

Dulio Fanali ua: Report of the Board of Inquiry on the crash of a TWA (USA) Super-Constellation plane, type 1649-A, N.7313 / C, which took p1ace in the vicinity of Olgiate Olona (Varese), Italy, on June 26, 1959. (PDF; 3.6 MB) Civil Aeronautics Board , November 15, 1960 (English).; accessed on August 13, 2020
Harro Ranter: ASN Aircraft accident Lockheed L-1649A Starliner N7313C Milano. In: Aviation Safety Network . Retrieved August 13, 2020(English).
Crash of a Lockheed L-1649 Starliner near Milan: 68 killed. B3A - Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives(English).; accessed on August 13, 2020
Registration Details For N7313C (Trans World Airlines (TWA)) L-1649A-. In: PlaneLogger. Retrieved August 13, 2020(English, operating history of the machine).

Individual evidence

^ Nicola Puddu: Il disastro aereo del 26 giugno 1959 a Olgiate Olona - Le settanta vite immortali del 26 giugno 1959. In: olgiateolona26giugno1959.org. July 29, 2020, accessed August 13, 2020 (Italian).
^ ^A ^b Nicola Puddu: Il disastro aereo del 26 giugno 1959 a Olgiate Olona - Cronaca del disastro aereo. In: olgiateolona26giugno1959.org. July 14, 2020, accessed August 13, 2020 (Italian).
^ Alberto Colombo: Il disastro aereo del 26 giugno 1959 a Olgiate Olona. Pp. 29-30.

45.6275 8.892778Coordinates: 45 ° 37 ′ 39 ″ N , 8 ° 53 ′ 34 ″ E