Old accident reports...

[Fearless Tower]

Came across this one while researching damage history on another airplane currently for sale:

http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=78645&key=0

1965 -0 EAL DC-7 lost control due to spatial -D while attempting to avoid a midair with Pan Am 707 - 84 people killed.

I had never heard about this one, actually, there are a lot of fatal commercial airline accidents from the 50's and 60's that didn't seem to make the history books. Kind of makes you appreciate how far we have come in airline safety.

 

[denverpilot]

Fate was a bigger hunter than the book let on, eh?

 

[Pilawt]

Fate hunted, and claimed its prey, in this one, in February 1976. I am quite familiar with it (http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/AAR76-17.pdf), as its denouement took place just down the street from where I was living at the time.

It happened to be the very first DC-6 (YC-112A) built, flying for Mercer Airlines. The trip was to be from KBUR to KONT with only three flight crew, two cabin crew and a deadheader aboard. As it lifted off KBUR Rwy 15 a blade separated from the #3 engine, tearing the engine from its mounts. The engine landed on the intersection of the two runways. The airplane’s hydraulic system was trashed as well. The pilot continued the takeoff (there is a cemetery and mausoleum immediately south of Rwy 15) and nursed the airplane through a low-altitude 270-degree right turn and landed successfully on Rwy 7 (now Rwy 8). But he realized that without brakes there was no chance of stopping before running through the fence, across Hollywood Way and into the gas station across the street. So he made it a touch-and-go.

He flew at about 250 AGL six miles west to KVNY, which had a longer runway. What he didn’t realize at the time was that #2 engine oil was also lost and failure of that engine was imminent. When #2 quit the airplane could no longer maintain altitude, coming down just south of the approach end of KVNY Rwy 34L in an under-construction golf course. They might have been all right had they not hit the concrete foundation for what was to be the golf course starter’s shack. The three cockpit crew died; the three in the cabin walked away.

My wife and I came home from church that rainy Sunday morning to find Woodley Avenue blocked off by emergency vehicles just south of our apartment.

 

[Fearless Tower]

Fate hunted, and claimed its prey, in this one, in February 1976. I am quite familiar with it (http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/AAR76-17.pdf), as its denouement took place just down the street from where I was living at the time.

It happened to be the very first DC-6 (YC-112A) built, flying for Mercer Airlines. The trip was to be from KBUR to KONT with only three flight crew, two cabin crew and a deadheader aboard. As it lifted off KBUR Rwy 15 a blade separated from the #3 engine, tearing the engine from its mounts. The engine landed on the intersection of the two runways. The airplane’s hydraulic system was trashed as well. The pilot continued the takeoff (there is a cemetery and mausoleum immediately south of Rwy 15) and nursed the airplane through a low-altitude 270-degree right turn and landed successfully on Rwy 7 (now Rwy 8). But he realized that without brakes there was no chance of stopping before running through the fence, across Hollywood Way and into the gas station across the street. So he made it a touch-and-go.

He flew at about 250 AGL six miles west to KVNY, which had a longer runway. What he didn’t realize at the time was that #2 engine oil was also lost and failure of that engine was imminent. When #2 quit the airplane could no longer maintain altitude, coming down just south of the approach end of KVNY Rwy 34L in an under-construction golf course. They might have been all right had they not hit the concrete foundation for what was to be the golf course starter’s shack. The three cockpit crew died; the three in the cabin walked away.

My wife and I came home from church that rainy Sunday morning to find Woodley Avenue blocked off by emergency vehicles just south of our apartment.

I'm very familiar with that one - really sad because when they made the decision to go around on the first landing at BUR, they had no way of knowing how mortally wounded the plane was. In retrospect, they would have been better staying on the ground and going through the fence, but I would have done the same thing they did.

The biggest problem wasn't the second engine failure, but the fact that the prop blade from #3 destroyed the entire hydraulic system and the gear was stuck down even though they had selected it up. An empty DC-6 will still fly on two engines, but not with the gear draggin'. If you read the CVR transcript, the flight crew didn't realize the gear was still down until they touched down on the golf course.