United Air Lines Flight 521
| United Air Lines Flight 521 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) A United Air Lines DC-4 |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Coming off the runway due to not released rudder locks |
| place |
LaGuardia Airport , New York City , New York , United States
|
| date | May 29, 1947 |
| Fatalities | 43 |
| Survivors | 5 |
| Injured | 5 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
Douglas DC-4
|
| operator |
United Air Lines
|
| Mark |
NC30046
|
| Surname | Mainliner Lake Tahoe |
| Departure airport |
LaGuardia Airport , New York City , New York , United States
|
| Destination airport |
Cleveland Airport , Ohio , United States
|
| Passengers | 44 |
| crew | 4th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On May 29, 1947, a Douglas DC-4 crashed on United Air Lines flight 521 (flight number UA521 ) while taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City . 43 out of 48 people on board were killed in the accident. The rudder locks that were not released before take-off were identified as the cause of the accident .
Airplane and occupants
The Douglas DC-4 used was built in 1944 for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) as the C-54B (serial number 18324, USAAF serial number 43-17124). The purchase by United Air Lines and the conversion into a DC-4 for civil use took place immediately after the end of the war. The machine was equipped with four radial engines of the type Pratt & Whitney R-2000-2SD-13G Twin Wasp . She was christened Mainliner Lake Tahoe and carried the aircraft registration number NC30046 . At the time of the accident, the machine had an operating performance of 5950 flight hours.
There were 44 passengers and 4 crew members on board.
the accident
Flight UA521 was a scheduled flight from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to Cleveland . On the evening of May 29, 1947, the machine began its take-off run at 19:04 local time from runway 18 in a southerly direction. Upon reaching the take-off rotating the DC-4 does not, overran the runway end, broke through the airport perimeter fence and rolled to the city motorway Grand Central Parkway . Then it hit an embankment, slid into a pond and exploded.
Initially 10 people escaped from the wreck, but five of them later died from their injuries. A total of 43 people were killed, only two crew members and three passengers survived. There were no victims on the ground.
It was the worst aviation accident in the history of the United States until then, until it was surpassed less than 24 hours later with the crash of another DC-4 on Eastern Airlines Flight 605.
root cause
The accident was investigated by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). During the investigation, the investigators found rudder locks that were not removed. According to the investigators, the likely cause of this accident was the inability of the pilot to operate the control surfaces because the rudder lock was activated. This led to the pilot's decision to abort take-off at a point where it was already too late to allow a stop within the airport limits.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ * René J. Francillon: Douglas Propliners - Skyleaders, DC-1 to DC-7 , 2011, pp. 226, 318
Coordinates: 40 ° 46 ′ 6 ″ N , 73 ° 53 ′ 5 ″ W.