1952 Moses Lake C-124 crash

Coordinates: 47°12′24.41″N 119°19′25.47″W / 47.2067806°N 119.3237417°W / 47.2067806; -119.3237417
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
1952 Moses Lake C-124 crash
San Antonio, Texas
Occupants115
Passengers105
Crew10
Fatalities87
Survivors28

The 1952 Moses Lake C-124 crash was an accident in which a United States Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II military transport aircraft crashed near Moses Lake, Washington on December 20, 1952. Of the 115 people on board, 87 died and 28 survived. The crash was the world's deadliest aviation disaster at the time, surpassing the Llandow air disaster, which killed 80 people. The death toll would not be surpassed until the Tachikawa air disaster, which also involved a Douglas C-124A-DL Globemaster II, killed 129 people.

Accident

The flight was part of "Operation: Sleigh Ride", a USAF airlift program to bring U.S. servicemen fighting in the

elevator and rudder gust locks had not been disengaged prior to departure.[1][2]

At the time it occurred, the Moses Lake crash was the deadliest accident in U.S. territory until a United Airlines DC-7 and a TWA L-1049 Super Constellation collided over the Grand Canyon in 1956, killing 128. The crash also remains the deadliest aviation accident to occur in Washington state.

See also

  • Tachikawa air disaster, the next and worst air accident involving a C-124, which happened just six months after the Moses Lake crash.
  • Arrow Air Flight 1285
    , another aircraft bringing U.S. servicemen home for Christmas which crashed in 1985.

References

  1. ^ "Aviation Safety Network".
  2. ^ "Washington State C-124 Crash Remembered". Archived from the original on 2017-03-13.