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Air Crash
Air Crash
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1785 Jun 15 |
Two Frenchmen attempting to cross the English Channel in a hot-air balloon were killed when their balloon caught fire and crashed, in possibly the first fatal aviation accident. Links: France, Air Crash, Balloon 
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1912 Jul 1 |
Drama critic Harriet Quimby (b.1875) took a passenger up in her new Blériot monoplane from Boston to fly over Dorchester Bay at the Harvard-Boston Aviation Meet. As she descended for landing, the plane went into a dive and, without seat belts, she and her passenger were thrown out into the shallow water of the bay, where they struck the muddy bottom and were crushed to death. Quimby was the first American to receive a pilot's license (1911) and was the first woman to solo across the English Channel (1912). Her interest in flight was piqued at an aviation meet in 1910. Links: USA, Air Crash, Massachusetts, Women, Aviation
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1915 Mar 14 |
Stunt pilot Lincoln Beachey (b.1887) plunged into the shallows of SF Bay and was killed as some 50,000 fans watched his performance during the Panama-Pacific Expo. The battleship USS Oregon recovered the plane and body. Links: USA, Air Crash, SF, SF Bay Area
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1915 Aug 9 |
Aviator Charles Niles (1888-1916) and his aircraft plunged into the SF Bay. Niles, who had become internationally famous for his work in the aerial war corps of General Carranza in Mexico, survived the crash. Links: USA, Air Crash, SF Bay Area
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1927 Apr 26 |
US Navy officers Cmdr. Noel Davis and Lt. Stanton Wooster were killed when their aircraft crashed near New York while trying to take off with a huge load of fuel for a final test flight prior to an attempt to cross the Atlantic. Links: USA, Air Crash, New York, Aviation
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1927 May 8 |
French pilots Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli took off from Paris in their airplane named L’Oiseau Blanc (the White Bird), in an attempt to cross the Atlantic. Pilots and plane vanished during the flight. Links: France, Air Crash, Aviation
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1928 May 24 |
The dirigible Italia crashed while attempting to reach Spitzbergen. Nine men survived the initial crash. In 2000 Wilbur Cross authored "Disaster at the Pole," a revised edition of the 1960 version of the disaster led by Italian aviator Umberto Nobile. The Russian film "Krasnaya palatka" (1969), starring Sean Connery, detailed the Nobile expedition and attempted rescue. This movie was released in North America under the title "The Red Tent." Links: Arctic, Italy, Russia, Air Crash, Film
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1931 May 14 |
Denys Finch-Hatton, British adventurer and lover to writer Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), died when his plane crashed shortly after take-off from Kenya’s Voi airport. In 2007 Sara Wheeler authored “Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton.” Links: Britain, Air Crash, Kenya
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1935 Jun 24 |
Carlos Gardel (B.1890), French-born Argentine tango singer and composer, died with 17 others, including three of his guitarists, when the propeller plane they were traveling in collided with another on takeoff from Medellin, Colombia, and burst into flames. Gardel's baritone voice and the dramatic phrasing of his lyrics made miniature masterpieces of his hundreds of three-minute tango recordings. Links: Argentina, Colombia, Air Crash, Tragedy, Pop&Rock
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1935 Oct 30 |
The US Army Air Corps held a competition to see which company would build the country’s next-generation of long-range bombers. Boeing’s “flying fortress” crashed shortly after takeoff and Martin and Douglas won by default. Links: USA, Air Crash, Aviation
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1937 May 6 |
At 7:25 p.m. the giant German airship (dirigible or zeppelin) Hindenburg burst into flames and crashed to the ground as it attempted to dock with a mooring mast at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. Carrying 36 passengers and 61 crew, Hindenburg left Frankfurt on May 4 for its first transatlantic voyage of the 1937 season. A total of 36 died when the fire ignited the 16 hydrogen-filled cells and destroyed the zeppelin in only 34 seconds. This included 13 passengers, 22 crew members and one of the ground crew. The airship was 803 feet long and had private rooms for 50 passengers. It had an 11,000 mile range. A newsreel film of the Hindenburg Disaster was made. The true cause of the disaster remains a mystery, although crash investigators considered claims that Hindenburg was lost due to sabotage or an accidental charge of static electricity. Links: USA, Germany, Air Crash, New Jersey, Tragedy
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1942 Oct 23 |
Ralph Rainger (41), pianist and song writer, was among 12 people killed when their DC-3 crashed after being clipped by a B-34 bomber flown by Army Lt. William Wilson, who had wanted to thumb his nose at Louis Reppert, a flight school buddy and co-pilot of the DC-3. An Army court-martial panel later exonerated Wilson, who had been charged with manslaughter. Rainger’s songs included “Love in Bloom” and “Thanks for the Memories,” which Bing Crosby made a hit in 1934. Links: USA, Air Crash, Pop&Rock
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1942 Nov 2 |
An amphibious PBY-5A aircraft foundered in rough weather, in the waters surrounding what is now the Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve in the eastern Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The plane was based at Presqu'Ile, Maine, in the US, and serviced an airfield in the village of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan, Quebec. Four of the crew escaped the flooding plane and were rescued by local fishermen rowing out from shore in open boats in rough seas. Five others perished, trapped inside. In 1941 and 1942, the US had constructed a series of airfields in Eastern Canada to ferry aircraft to Allied air forces in Northern Europe, as part of the so-called "Crimson Route." Wreckage of the downed plane was found in 2009. In 2012 remains of the other crew members were recovered. Links: Canada, USA, Air Crash, Maine
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1942 Nov 18 |
An AT-7 Beechcraft military training plane crashed in the Mendel Glacier in California’s Kings Canyon National Park. The 4-member training flight left Mather Field in Sacramento, Ca., and was never heard from again. On Sep 24, 1947, a hiker discovered wreckage of the plane on a glacier in Kings Canyon. On Oct 16, 2005, a climber on the Mendel Glacier discovered a body believed to be one of the crew members. He was later identified as Leo M. Mustonen (22) of Brainerd, Minn. The others were John M. Mortenson (25) of Moscow, Idaho, William R. Gamber (23) of Fayette, Ohio, and Ernest G. Munn of St. Clairsville, Ohio. A 2nd body was found under receding snow in 2007 and was identified Ernest G. Munn. Links: USA, California, Air Crash, Ohio, Minnesota, Idaho
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1943 Jul 4 |
A Liberator II aircraft carrying Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski, Poland’s prime minister and chief army commander, crashed into the sea just 16 seconds after taking off from Gibraltar. In 2008 Poland began an investigation into the crash. Links: Poland, Air Crash, Gibraltar
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1943 |
A Vultee BT-13 Valiant disappeared on a flight from San Antonio, Texas, to Chile. Pilot Werner Martinez and Sgt. Tomas Ayala were on ill-fated flight, which crashed in Costa Rica. In 2008 police were led to the crash site after an anonymous caller reported seeing a local resident carrying plane parts in the town of San Isidro de El Guarco. Links: Costa Rica, Chile, Air Crash
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1944 Feb 22 |
In England 10 American airmen killed when their crippled B-17G Flying Fortress crashed in Sheffield. The pilot avoided a schoolyard brawl in Endcliffe Park and crashed in nearby woods. Links: Britain, USA, Air Crash, WWII
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1944 Mar 24 |
British Major Orde Wingate (b.1903) died along with nine others in an air crash in northeast India. He was flying in the USAAF B-25H-1-NA Mitchell bomber, 43-4242, of the 1st Air Commando Group. He is known for creating special military units in Palestine in the 1930s, and in Abyssinia, Sudan and Burma during World War II. Links: Britain, USA, India, Air Crash
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1944 May 30 |
In southern California four US Navy fliers were killed when a fighter plane collided with a bomber during training exercises over Palomar Mountain in San Diego. Links: USA, California, Air Crash, Tragedy
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1944 Oct 29 |
A Halifax JP244 plane supplying the British mission in Albania, which was fighting alongside Albanian partisan forces, crashed in a mountainside in Biza. The remains of seven British military personnel were found in 2015. Links: Albania, Britain, Air Crash, WWII
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1944 Nov 30 |
A US Navy reconnaissance plane crashed into the south face of Mount Tamalpais, in Marin County, Ca. 8 Navy fliers were killed. Links: USA, Air Crash, SF Bay Area
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1945 Jan |
In Poland a Soviet fighter bomber crashed into the frozen Bzura River. On August 23, 2015, parts of Soviet uniforms, a parachute, a sheepskin coat collar, parts of boots, a pilot's TT pistol and radio equipment were found, along with a lot of heavy ammunition, as river levels dropped to record lows. Links: Russia, Poland, Air Crash, USSR
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1945 Mar 14 |
Sgt. 1st Class Marvin Steinford, a native of Iowa, was part of a 10-man crew of a B-17 bomber which was hit, while returning to its base in Italy from a mission over Hungary. In 2004 his remains were found in a grave in the town on Zirc in western Hungary, where he had been buried with 26 Soviet soldiers. In 2009 his remains were returned to the US. Links: USA, Hungary, Air Crash, Iowa, WWII
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1945 May 28 |
In California the engine of Helldiver aircraft from an aircraft carrier failed and the pilot ditched the plane in a San Diego reservoir. The pilot and gunner swam to shore. In 2009 fisherman spotted the plane and set in process plans to retrieve the plane. Links: USA, California, Air Crash
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1945 Aug 18 |
Subhas Chandra Bose (b.1897), a leader of the Indian Independence Movement, died after his overloaded Japanese plane crashed in Japanese-occupied Formosa. He had led some 40,000 soldiers against the British during WWII as an ally of Hitler and imperial Japan. Links: India, Japan, Taiwan, Air Crash
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1946 Jul 7 |
William Durkin (1916-2006) rescued Howard Hughes (1905-1976) from the fiery wreckage of an XF-11 reconnaissance plane that Hughes was testing over Beverly Hills. Links: USA, Air Crash, Aviation
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1946 Nov |
A US Air Force Douglas C-53 Skytrooper carrying four crew members and eight passengers crashed on the Swiss Gauli Glacier. After five days a rescue mission used an aircraft for the first time to land on the glacier and led to the creation of Switzerland's air rescue services. There were some injuries but no fatalities. In 2018 the melting of glacial ice uncovered a large part of the wreckage. Links: USA, Switzerland, Air Crash
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1947 Nov 28 |
Jacques-Philippe Leclerc (b.1902), WW II hero (liberator of Paris), died. His North American B-25 Mitchell, Tailly II, carrying Leclerc and his staff, crashed near Colomb-Béchar in French Algeria, killing everyone on board. Links: Algeria, France, Air Crash
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1948 Jan 28 |
A plane chartered by US Immigration Services left Oakland, Ca., carrying 32 people, including 28 Mexicans. Many were part of the bracero program and had finished their government-sponsored work contracts. 20 miles west of Coalinga an engine exploded, a wing broke off and more than 100 witnesses watched bodies and luggage thrown from the fireball. There were no survivors. Links: California, Air Crash, Mexico, Migrant
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1948 Mar 12 |
In Alaska 24 merchant marines and six crewmen were flying from China to New York City, when their DC-4 slammed into Mount Sanford killing all 30. Pilots Kevin McGregor and Marc Millican discovered some mummified remains in 1999 while recovering artifacts to identify the wreckage they had found two years earlier. Links: USA, Air Crash, Alaska, DNA
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1950 Feb 13 |
A US Air Force B-36 crashed near the coast of northern British Columbia during a simulated nuclear attack on San Francisco. 12 of 17 men on board survived. A Mark 4 bomb, which lacked a plutonium core needed for a nuclear blast, was dropped over the ocean before the plane crashed. Links: Canada, USA, Air Crash, Nuclear, Air Force
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1950 Jun 23 |
Northwest Airlines Flight 2501, a DC-4 propliner operating its daily transcontinental service between New York City and Seattle, crashed into Lake Michigan killing 58 people. This was to date the worst commercial airliner accident in American history. Links: USA, Air Crash, NYC, Michigan, Tragedy
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1950 Nov 5 |
A US bomber caught fire and crashed while flying over China’s southern Guangdong province. Its mission was not known. Records and eyewitness accounts indicated that four bodies were buried at the crash site, while the fate of the other 11 on board wasn't clear. Links: USA, China, Air Crash
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1952 Nov 22 |
A US military plane crashed near Anchorage, Alaska. All 52 crew members were believed killed. Wreckage was spotted on a melting glacier in 2012. By 2014 the remains of 17 were recovered and identified. The remains of 35 others were not yet recovered. Links: USA, Air Crash, Alaska
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1953 Oct 29 |
A British airliner with 11 passengers and 8 crew crashed into Kings Mountain, 10 miles west of Redwood City, Ca., and all aboard were killed. William Kapell (b.1922), genius pianist, died in the crash. He was returning from a tour in Australia when his airplane crashed into a mountain outside San Francisco. A set of his 1944-1953 recordings was released in 1998 by RCA. In 1999 BMG released "The William Kapell Edition," a nine-disk set. Links: Britain, Air Crash, SF Bay Area, Piano, Classical Music
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1955 Oct 6 |
A United Airlines plane bound for SF crashed in Wyoming killing 66 people. It was the worst commercial airline crash to date in US history. Links: USA, Air Crash, Wyoming
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1955 Oct 13 |
A US Air Force B-47B crashed while taking off from March Air Base in California. Capt. Edward A. O'Brien Jr. (Pilot), Capt. David J. Clare (co-pilot), Major Thomas F. Mulligan (navigator), and Capt. Joseph M. Graeber (chaplain) were all killed. Links: USA, California, Air Crash
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1955 Oct 14 |
In SF, Ca., a US Navy attack bomber crashed on the eastern shore of Yerba Buena Island. Pilot Gilbert David Reeve died in the wreck. Links: USA, Air Crash, SF Bay Area
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1955 Oct 15 |
Richard Martin Theiler (28) was in the front seat of the Lockheed-Martin T-33A that went missing just after takeoff from the Los Angeles International Airport. In 2009 aviation archaeologist G. Pat Macha and a group of volunteers found the plane underneath 100 feet of water. Links: USA, California, Air Crash
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1956 Jun 30 |
A United DC-7 and a TWA Lockheed Constellation collided during a thunderstorm over the Grand Canyon (Arizona) killing all 128 people. Links: USA, Air Crash, Arizona
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1956 Oct 15 |
Pan Am Flight 943, enroute to Hawaii from San Francisco crash landed in the ocean. All 31 aboard were rescued by the Coast Guard cutter Pontchartrain. Links: USA, Air Crash
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1957 Mar 17 |
In the Philippines a plane crash on Mt. Manunggal in Cebu killed Pres. Ramon Magsaysay (b.1907). 25 of the 26 passengers and crew aboard were killed. Links: Philippines, Air Crash
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1958 Feb 6 |
A British European Airways plane crashed in Munich. Among the 21 dead were 7 players of the Manchester United football team. Links: Britain, Germany, Air Crash
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1958 Aug 14 |
KLM Flight 607-E, a Lockheed Super Constellation, crashed west of Ireland, killing 99. Links: Netherlands, Air Crash, Ireland, Tragedy
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1958 Oct 4 |
In Minnesota a single engine military Cessna L-19 crashed into Green Lake and took the life of Captain Richard P. Carey, 36, who was returning to the Willmar airfield from Rochester. The pane was recovered in 2005. Links: Air Crash, Minnesota
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1960 Mar 21 |
Capt. John Eaheart (32), a US Marine Corps Reserve pilot, crashed in his F9F Cougar fighter jet and disappeared into Flathead Lake, Wyoming, near the home of his fiancée’s parents. His remains were found in 2006. Links: USA, Air Crash, Montana
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1960 Dec 16 |
A United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over Staten Island, New York City. 134 people were killed including 128 people on both planes. Links: USA, Air Crash, NYC
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1961 Jan 24 |
A B-52 carrying two nuclear bombs near Goldsboro, North Carolina encountered a violent gust. The giant plane rolled completely over, came upright, and continued rolling inverted a second time before whipping into a vicious flat spin and breaking up. An apocalyptic explosion was stopped only by a tiny last-ditch, low-voltage switch. Links: USA, Air Crash, North Carolina, Nuclear
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1961 Sep 1 |
TWA Flight 529, a Lockheed Constellation L-049 propliner, crashed shortly after takeoff from Midway Airport in Chicago, killing all 73 passengers and 5 crew on board; it was at the time the deadliest single plane disaster in US history. Links: USA, Air Crash, Chicago, Tragedy
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1961 Sep 18 |
Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary-General of the UN, was killed in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He was flying to negotiate a cease-fire in the Congo. Hammarskjold was the son of a former Swedish prime minister. In 1953, he was elected to the top UN post and in 1957 was reelected. During his second term, he initiated and directed the United Nation's vigorous role in the Belgian Congo. Hammarskjold had sent Conor O’Brien (1919-2008), an Irish diplomat, to the Congo where a rebellion was openly being backed by Belgium and secretly by Britain and France. O’Brien ordered in UN troops, but the mission ended in disarray and the UN repudiated the mission. O’Brien recounted his version of the events in his book “To Katanga and Back” (1962). Links: UN, Air Crash, Sweden, Zambia, CongoDRC, Books
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1961 Nov 8 |
Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8, a Lockheed Constellation L-049 four-engine propliner, aircraft crashed as it attempted to land at Byrd Field, near Richmond, Va. It was chartered by the US Army to transport new recruits to Columbia, South Carolina, for training. Links: USA, Air Crash, Virginia, Tragedy
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1962 Mar 15 |
A US Lockheed Super H Constellation disappeared above the Pacific Ocean and 107 people were killed. The aircraft was transporting 93 Army men and 3 South Vietnamese from Travis Air Force Base, California to Saigon, Vietnam. It was en route to Clark Air Base in the Philippines when it disappeared. Links: USA, Air Crash
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1962 Aug 23 |
A Colombian DC-3 plane crashed in the Choco jungle killing two Americans, the first Peace Corps volunteers to die in service, as well as 36 Colombians. Links: Colombia, USA, Air Crash
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1963 Jan 24 |
In Maine a B-52 bomber encountered turbulence strong enough to snap off the vertical stabilizer, causing it to crash onto the side of Elephant Mountain. Seven crew members died. Gerald Adler survived along with the pilot, Lt. Col. Dan Bulli, after spending 20 hours on the mountainside. Links: USA, Air Crash, Maine
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1963 Feb 4 |
In Canada's Yukon territory a small plane piloted by Ralph Flores crashed shortly after takeoff from Whitehorse. The pilot and passenger Helen Klaben (1941-2018) survived the crash and endured 49 days of subzero temperatures before they were rescued. Links: Canada, Air Crash
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1964 May 7 |
A disturbed man entered the cockpit of a Pacific Airlines flight and killed pilot Ernie Clark (52). All 44 people aboard the Fairchild F-27A died as the plane crashed in San Ramon, Ca. Links: USA, Air Crash, Murder, SF Bay Area, Mad Man
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1966 Jan 24 |
The Kangchenjunga, a Boeing 707 flying from Mumbai (Bombay) to New York, crashed on the southwest face of Mont Blanc, France, as it descended towards a scheduled stopover in Geneva, Switzerland. All 117 people on board died. Links: France, Air Crash
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1966 Jul 24 |
Oakland-born golfer Tony Lema (32), while flying with his wife Betty to an exhibition match in Chicago, Illinois, crashed on the seventh hole of a golf course in Lansing, Illinois, after their chartered twin-engine Beechcraft Bonanza ran out of fuel. All four people on board were killed. Links: USA, Air Crash, Illinois, SF Bay Area, Golf
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1967 Sep 3 |
Muhammad Bin Laden (b.1908), a Yemeni immigrant to Saudi Arabia, died in a plane crash. He made a fortune in the construction business and left King Faisal in charge of some 55 of his children. Links: Air Crash, Saudi Arabia
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1968 Jan 21 |
An American B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed at North Star Bay, Greenland, killing one crew member and scattering radioactive material. Reports began to surface later and in 1995 the Danish government paid a $15.5 million settlement to some 1,700 exposed workers. Links: USA, Air Crash, Denmark, Nuclear, Greenland
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