Continental Airlines Flight 11
Bombing | |
---|---|
Date | May 22, 1962 |
Summary | Suicide bombing (suicide committed as an insurance fraud by a passenger) |
Site | Union Township, Putnam County near Unionville, Missouri, United States 40°32′49.43″N 93°3′28.25″W / 40.5470639°N 93.0578472°W |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Boeing 707-124 |
Operator | Continental Airlines |
IATA flight No. | CO11 |
ICAO flight No. | COA11 |
Call sign | CONTINENTAL 11 |
Registration | N70775 |
Flight origin | O'Hare International Airport Chicago, Illinois |
Destination | Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, Kansas City, Missouri |
Passengers | 37 |
Crew | 8 |
Fatalities | 45 |
Survivors | 0 |
Continental Airlines Flight 11, registration N70775, was a
Aircraft and crew
The aircraft was a Boeing 707-124,
The crew consisted of Captain Fred R. Gray (age 50), First Officer Edward J. Sullivan (41), Flight Engineer Roger D. "Jack" Allen (32) and five flight attendants. Captain Gray was a highly experienced pilot, having accumulated 25,000 flight hours, of which 2,600 were in the 707. First Officer Sullivan had accumulated 14,500 flight hours, of which 600 were in the 707.[1]
Crash
The perpetrator, Thomas G. Doty, arrived at the gate just moments before departure.[2]
Flight 11 departed O'Hare at 8:35 p.m. The flight was routine until just before the Mississippi River when it deviated from its filed flight plan to the north to avoid a line of thunderstorms.[3] In the vicinity of Centerville, Iowa, the radar image of the aircraft disappeared from the scope of the Waverly, Iowa, Flight Following Service. At approximately 9:17 p.m. an explosion occurred in the right rear lavatory, resulting in the separation of the tail section from the fuselage.[4] The flight crew initiated the required emergency descent procedures and donned their smoke masks due to the dense fog that formed in the cabin immediately after decompression. Following the separation of the tail, the remaining aircraft structure pitched nose down violently, causing the engines to tear off, after which it fell in uncontrolled gyrations. The fuselage of the Boeing 707, minus the aft 38 feet (12 m), and with part of the left and most of the right wing intact, struck the ground, headed westerly down a 10-degree slope of an alfalfa field.[1]
Witnesses in and around both
Of the 45 individuals on board, 44 were dead when rescuers reached the crash site. One passenger, a 27-year-old man from Evanston, Illinois, died of internal injuries at Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital in Centerville, Iowa, an hour and a half after being rescued.[5][6]
Investigation
In July 2010, a memorial was erected near the crash site in Unionville, Missouri on the anniversary of the crash.[8][9]
In May 2012, a special 50th-anniversary memorial service was held in Unionville.
In popular culture
- Flight 11 is dramatized in Aircrash Confidential.[10]
- The event partially inspired Arthur Hailey's novel Airport.[11]
See also
- 1962 in aviation
- Aviation safety
- National Airlines Flight 967, U.S. on November 16, 1959 killing 42 (Suspected bombing for insurance fraud)
- National Airlines Flight 2511, US – 1960 in-flight suicide bombing for insurance fraud
- Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 108, Canada – 1949 in-flight bombing for murder and insurance fraud
- China Northern Airlines Flight 6136, China – 2002 in-flight arson caused by insurance fraud
- Federal Express Flight 705, US – 1994 attempted in-flight hijacking for insurance fraud that was foiled by the aircraft's crew
- List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
- United Air Lines Flight 629, US – 1955 in-flight bombing for murder and insurance fraud
- Comair Flight 206
References
- ^ a b c "AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT REPORT;CONTINENTAL AIR LINES, INC. BOEING 707-124, N 70775, NEAR UNIONVILLE, MISSOURI, MAY 22, 1962" (PDF). Repository and Open Science Access Portal; National Transportation Library; United States Department of Transportation. Civil Aeronautics Board. July 26, 1962. pp. 3, 6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 February 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020. - Current URL
- YouTube
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
- ^ "WRECK INDICATES JET RIPPED APART; C.A.B. Studies Evidence of Sudden Decompression". The New York Times. Vol. 111, no. 38, 106. 25 May 1962.
- ^ "Unraveling the crash of Flight 11...", Sun Herald
- ^ "Jet Broke Up at 39,000 ft., Experts Say". Chicago Daily Tribune. Vol. 121, no. 124. May 24, 1962. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
- ^ "Passengers were mostly businessmen plus one bomber". KABC-TV. 2010-05-23. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
- ^ "Flight 11 Memorial Dedication". Putnam County Historical Society. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
- ^ Riek, Jim (6 November 2008). "A Forgotten Tragedy". KOMU-TV. Archived from the original on May 11, 2010. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
- ^ Aircrash Confidential, Continental Airlines Flight 11, retrieved 2024-02-02
- ^ Fifty years ago this week..., The Pitch, May 23, 2012
External links
- "Jet Crashes-Kills 45 L A. Bound 707 Plummets from Violent Storm". The Desert Sun. Palm Springs, California. 1962-05-23. p. 1.
- DePuy, Charles B. "The untold story of Continental Flight 11." Daily Iowegian at Journal Express. May 22, 2012.
- Bombing description for Continental Flight 11 at the Aviation Safety Network