American Airlines Flight 6780
Convair CV-240-0 | |
| Aircraft name | Flagship New Haven |
|---|---|
| Operator | American Airlines |
| Registration | N94229[1] |
| Flight origin | Buffalo Municipal Airport |
| 1st stopover | Rochester Municipal Airport |
| Last stopover | Hancock Airport |
| Destination | Newark International Airport |
| Occupants | 23 |
| Passengers | 20 |
| Crew | 3 |
| Fatalities | 23 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Ground casualties | |
| Ground fatalities | 7 |
American Airlines Flight 6780, the first fatal crash of a
The twin-propeller aircraft was on the routing
The plane, which had gone 2,100 feet (640 m) off course to the right, narrowly missed hitting the Battin High School for girls, which had dismissed for the day only 45 minutes before.
Casualties
All 23 occupants on board (20 passengers and 3 crew), plus 7 people on the ground, were killed in the crash and ensuing fire.
The Captain, Thomas J. Reid, whose home was only blocks from the crash scene, had recently returned from an airlift to Japan; his wife heard the crash and told reporters that they had been planning to move to a house they had constructed in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.[4]
Among the passengers was
Aftermath
This was the second in a string of three crashes to hit the town of Elizabeth in less than two months. On December 16, 1951, a Miami Airlines C-46 had crashed into the Elizabeth River shortly after take-off, with 56 people on board and no survivors.
The third crash,
President Harry Truman launched a temporary commission of inquiry, headed by Jimmy Doolittle, to study the effects of airports on their neighbors. The report recommended the establishment of effective zoning laws to prevent the erection of schools, hospitals and other places of assembly under final approach paths.[8][9]
The three crashes later provided the inspiration to writer and Elizabeth resident Judy Blume for her 2015 novel In the Unlikely Event.[10]
References
- ^ "FAA Registry (N94229)". Federal Aviation Administration.
- ^ [1] Archived June 13, 2015, at the Wayback Machine Civil Aeronautics Board Accident Report
- ^ "Convair CV-240" ASN Aviation Safety Database
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 24, 2009.
- ISBN 0-553-29023-1
- ISBN 978-0-7385-2393-4.
- ^ "Airport Moats Needed?" Flight March 14, 1952 p.305
- ^ "The Doolittle Report" Flight July 11, 1952 pp.53-54
- ^ J. H. Doolittle, et al., "The Airport and its Neighbors", The Report of the President's Airport Commission. May 16, 1952. LCCN 52061225 (recommendation 5)
- ^ Hyman, Vicki (December 15, 2014). "Judy Blume's upcoming adult novel tackles real-life plane crashes in 1950s Elizabeth". NJ.com. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
Sources
- Report - Civil Aeronautics Board - PDF
- "Plane Crash" The Herald-Press, January 23, 1952. St. Joseph, Michigan. pp. 1, 6
- "Airliner Crash Deaths Reach 28" The Deseret NewsJanuary 23, 1952. pp. 1,2
- "Patterson called Great American by Truman" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette January 23, 1952, pp. 1,3
