TWA Flight 3 is a twin-engined Douglas DC-3-382 prokiner, registered NC1946, operated by Transcontinental and Western Air as a scheduled domestic passenger flight from New York City, to Burbank, California, via Indianapolis, Indiana, St. Louis, Missouri, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Las Vegas, Nevada. On January 16, 1942, at 7:20 pm PST, 15 minutes after taking off from Las Vegas Airport (now Nellis Air Force Base) to Burbank, the plane hit a steep cliff on Mount Potosi, 32 miles southwest of the airport, at an altitude of 7,770 ft (2.370 m) above sea level, and destroyed. All 22 people in it - including movie star Carole Lombard, his mother, and three crew members - were killed in the crash. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) investigated the accident and decided that it was caused by a navigation error by the captain.
Video TWA Flight 3
Flight history
TWA Flight 3 flew transcontinental routes from New York to greater Los Angeles with several intermediate stops, including Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Albuquerque, with the ultimate goal of Burbank, California.
At 4:00 am local time on the morning of January 16, 1942 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Carole Lombard, his mother Elizabeth Knight, and Otto Winkler's MGM press agent boarded Flight 3 to return to California. Lombard, who wants to meet her husband, Clark Gable in Los Angeles, will return from a successful Bond promotional tour in the Midwest, where he helped raise over $ 2,000,000.
Arriving in Albuquerque, Lombard and his colleagues were asked to give up their seats to continue the flight segment to make room for 15 US Air Force personnel flying to California. Lombard insisted that because of War Bonds efforts, he was also important, and he convinced the station's agents to let his group board the plane. Other passengers were removed, including violinist Joseph Szigeti.
The original flight crew was replaced by a new crew in Albuquerque. A fuel stop is planned in Winslow, Arizona, due to higher passenger loads and headwinds estimates. However, the captain decided while on his way to pass the Winslow stop and went straight to Las Vegas.
After a brief refueling stop at what is now Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, the plane left on a clear, monthless night for its final leg to Burbank. Fifteen minutes later, it flew nearly seven miles, crashing into a cliff near Mount Potosi in Spring Mountain at 7,770 feet, about 80 feet (24 m) below cliff tops and 730 feet (220 m)) below the peak, killing all on board directly.
Maps TWA Flight 3
Investigation
The accident was investigated by the Civil Aeronautical Board. Eyewitnesses and other evidence suggest that Flight 3 departs from its departure in Las Vegas basically a straight line, 10 Â ° right from the specified air path, to a plateau rising above the altitude of their flight 8,000 feet (2,400 m). It is indicated for the researchers that the crew did not use radio navigation to follow the airway (defined by the low frequency range), which would give them a secure barrier clearance, but instead use a compass title.
Visibility is generally good, but since most road light flares have been turned off due to war, they can not be used, even though one important flare actually operates normally.
The key evidence is the flight plan form, completed by the first officer in Albuquerque (but not signed by the captain, despite the company's requirements to do so). In form, the planned outbound magnetic course from Las Vegas is filled as 218 Â °, which is close to the actual flight path flown by the crew to the point of the accident. Because of this course, it flies at 8,000 feet, lower than the terrain in that direction (which rises to about 8,500 feet (2,600 m)), the board concludes it is clearly an error. The board speculates that since both pilots have flown to Burbank much more frequently than Boulder City Airport (BLD) than from Las Vegas, and that of Boulder City Airport, the outbound magnetic course 218 Â ° would be a sensible choice to join the airway Burbank, the crew may have inadvertently used Boulder City's outbound program in exchange for an appropriate Las Vegas course. Boulder City Airport is not used as a refueling point on this trip because there is no lighting of the runway. To test their hypothesis, CAB requested to review some completed TWA flight plan forms for flights between Albuquerque and Las Vegas. Surprisingly, they find another form, from the actual flight, which also specifies the same thing that is not true of Vegas travel. Chief Pilot TWA testified that the course filled on the form was "obviously a mistake."
The CAB issued a final report with a statement of the following possible causes:
Based on the above findings and from all the records available today, we found that the probable cause of the NC 1946 aircraft crash on January 16, 1942, was a captain's failure after the departure of Las Vegas to follow of course by utilizing the navigation facilities available to him.
CAB adds the following factors:
- The use of the wrong compass course
- Extinguish most of the flares in the emergency environment required by the emergency war
- Failure of the pilot to comply with the instructions of TWA July 17, 1941, issued pursuant to the advice of the Civil Aviation Administrator requesting pilots to restrict their flight movement to the actual signal in the path.
In Ores Welles claims that he had been told by a security agent that the plane was shot down by a Nazi agent who knew the route before. He also claimed that the shooting was done to prevent vigilante action against Americans with German ancestors.
See also
- List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
References
External links
- LostFlights - Archeological Site of Flight
- Site location crash - at www.birdandhike.com
- Their name is on the plane
- A collection of newspaper articles from 1942 relating to Carole Lombard in Google News Archive
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments