Aviation Accident Summary Archive

A Douglas DC-3 operated by American Airlines was destroyed after a mid-air collision with a U.S. Army Air Forces Lockheed B-34 Lexington bomber. The collision occurred when the bomber pilot, Lieutenant William N. Wilson, attempted to maneuver in close proximity to the airliner to greet its first officer, a former classmate. The B-34's right propeller sliced through the DC-3's tail section, causing the airliner to enter a flat spin and crash into Chino Canyon. All 12 people on board the DC-3 were killed. The two crew members of the B-34 survived as the aircraft remained flyable and landed safely with minor damage, bringing the total number of souls involved in the accident to 14. The B-34 was later involved in a fatal crash in 1943 after being repaired.

Pilot Error · Multi-aircraft

A Vickers Wellington 1C medium bomber stalled and crashed into a residential area near South Ruislip station while attempting a steep turn during its final approach to RAF Northolt. The aircraft was carrying two crews from No. 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron who were traveling to London for a debriefing following anti-submarine engagements; one crew led by F/Lt Václav Študent had recently sunk U-165 on September 27, 1942, while the other led by P/O František Bulis had damaged a U-boat on September 9. All 15 occupants on board were killed, along with six civilians on the ground, bringing the total fatalities to 21. The crash remains the largest single-incident loss of life for No. 311 Squadron.

Pilot Error

A Royal Air Force Short Sunderland flying boat crashed into a hillside at Eagle's Rock while transporting Prince George, Duke of Kent, on a VIP mission to Iceland. The aircraft took off from RAF Invergordon in foggy conditions and veered significantly inland from its planned coastal route. It struck the terrain at an altitude of approximately 700 feet with the engines at full power, killing 14 of the 15 people on board. The Duke of Kent became the first member of the British Royal Family to die on active military service since 1914. The sole survivor, tail gunner Sergeant Andrew Jack, was found injured nearly 24 hours later.

Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT)

A Handley Page Halifax II, modified as a top secret radar testbed, crashed near Welsh Bicknor after an engine fire led to a structural failure of the wing. The aircraft was testing the H2S ground mapping radar, a high priority project for the British war effort. During the flight, the outboard starboard engine caught fire due to a maintenance error involving an improperly tightened tappet nut. The fire spread rapidly, eventually burning through the wing structure and causing the outer portion of the starboard wing to detach at an altitude of approximately 350 to 500 feet. All 11 occupants, including several prominent scientists and engineers, were killed.

Human Factors (Maintenance)

Three Bristol Blenheim IV aircraft of 15 Squadron, South African Air Force, performed forced landings in the Libyan desert after becoming lost during a familiarization flight from Kufra Oasis. Due to a combination of navigational errors, incorrect weather reports, and radio misunderstandings, the formation exhausted its fuel. While all 12 men survived the initial landings, 11 perished from exposure, dehydration, and self-inflicted wounds during a multi-day sandstorm before rescue could reach them. One survivor, Air Mechanic N. St. M. Juul, was rescued on May 11, 1942.

Pilot Error · Multi-aircraft

A KNILM Douglas DC-3, carrying refugees and a valuable package of diamonds from Java, was intercepted and shot down by three Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters near the Western Australian coast. The pilot, a Russian World War I ace, managed to perform a wheels-down emergency landing on a beach at Carnot Bay despite being wounded and having one engine on fire. Following the landing, the Japanese fighters strafed the wreckage, resulting in the deaths of one crew member and three passengers, including a baby. The incident gained further notoriety due to the subsequent disappearance and partial recovery of the diamonds the aircraft was transporting.

Military Action

A Qantas Short Empire flying boat, named Corio, was shot down by seven Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters while en route to pick up refugees in the Dutch East Indies. The aircraft was flying at low altitude approximately 13 nautical miles from West Timor when it was intercepted. Despite the captain's attempts to evade the attack by flying a zig-zag pattern at maximum speed just above the waves, the aircraft sustained heavy fire, caught fire in two engines, and impacted the sea nose-first at high speed. The fuselage broke in two upon impact, and 13 of the 18 people on board were killed.

Military Action

TWA Flight 3 struck a near-vertical cliff on Potosi Mountain approximately 15 minutes after departing Las Vegas, killing all 22 people on board, including Hollywood actress Carole Lombard. The aircraft was flying nearly 7 miles off its intended course at an altitude of 7,770 feet, which was insufficient to clear the 8,500-foot terrain in its path. Investigators determined the crew had likely used an incorrect magnetic heading of 218 degrees, a course appropriate for departures from Boulder City but fatal when executed from Las Vegas.

Pilot Error

American Airlines Flight 1, a Douglas DC-3 named Flagship Erie, crashed into a wheat field near Lawrence Station, Ontario, during the Buffalo to Detroit leg of a multi-stop scheduled flight from New York to Chicago. The aircraft was observed performing a series of descending circles to the right, with the radius of the turns progressively diminishing. After approximately four circles, the plane recovered from the spiral at a low altitude, climbed suddenly to between 200 and 500 feet, and likely stalled. It then dived into the ground at a 70 degree angle and burst into flames, killing all 20 people on board. Despite a four month investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board, the cause of the erratic maneuvers and subsequent crash could not be determined.

Unknown

Northwest Airlines Flight 5 crashed into an open field near Moorhead, Minnesota, after accumulating excessive ice on its wings during an approach to Fargo. The aircraft was operating a multi-stop transcontinental route from Chicago to Seattle. Shortly after 2:00 am, the Douglas DC-3 lost altitude and struck the ground on the property of the Moorhead Rod and Gun Club, approximately 1.5 miles north of Moorhead. The impact and subsequent fire killed 12 passengers and two crew members. The captain was the sole survivor, having been thrown from the wreckage upon impact. Approximately 100 pounds of mail (898 pieces) were salvaged from the wreckage.

Weather

Eastern Air Lines Flight 21 crashed into a pine grove during an instrument approach to Atlanta's Candler Field, resulting in eight fatalities. The aircraft struck trees at an elevation of 915 feet, approximately five miles southeast of the Atlanta range station, while the pilots believed they were at a safe approach altitude. The investigation revealed that the captain failed to ensure the approach altimeter was correctly set to the local atmospheric pressure. A setting of 29.92 inches of mercury was found on the instrument, whereas the actual local pressure was 28.94, creating a vertical error of nearly 1,000 feet.

Pilot Error

A Junkers Ju 90A-1 passenger aircraft, named Brandenburg, crashed into a field near Schönteichen after experiencing severe icing during a flight from Berlin to Budapest. The aircraft suffered a rapid, uncontrolled loss of altitude shortly after the crew reported icing conditions while flying in clouds at 2,200 meters. All 29 occupants, including the German musician Adolf Raskin, were killed. Investigators determined that ice accumulation between 1.5 and 2 centimeters thick had likely jammed the aircraft's elevators, rendering it uncontrollable.

Weather

Two RAAF Avro Anson training aircraft collided mid-air and became physically interlocked, remaining airborne as a single unit. The pilot of the upper aircraft, Leading Aircraftman Leonard Fuller, discovered he could maintain control using his ailerons and flaps while powered by the still-functioning engines of the lower aircraft. After the other three crew members bailed out, Fuller successfully performed a belly landing of the stacked aircraft in a paddock near Brocklesby. All four crew members survived the incident, which became known as the Brocklesby Miracle.

Mid-air Collision · Multi-aircraft

A Pennsylvania Central Airlines Douglas DC-3A crashed into an alfalfa field near Lovettsville, Virginia, during an intense thunderstorm, killing all 25 people on board. The aircraft was en route from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh when it encountered severe weather. Numerous ground witnesses reported seeing a massive flash of lightning near the aircraft shortly before it nosed over and plunged to the ground. The investigation concluded that a lightning strike likely incapacitated the crew or caused a loss of control, marking the deadliest disaster in U.S. commercial aviation history at that time.

Weather

A Lockheed Hudson transport aircraft carrying senior Australian government and military officials stalled and crashed into a hill while on approach to Canberra Airport. All ten people on board were killed, including three federal cabinet ministers and the Chief of the General Staff. The disaster significantly weakened the Menzies government, leading to its eventual collapse in 1941. Investigations attributed the crash to a stall caused by pilot error, though the identity of the person at the controls remains a subject of historical debate.

Pilot Error

A civilian Junkers Ju 52 airliner, named Kaleva, was intercepted and shot down by two Soviet Ilyushin DB-3 bombers while flying a scheduled route from Tallinn to Helsinki. The attack occurred during peacetime, just two days before the Soviet Union's full-scale occupation of the Baltic states. All nine people on board were killed when the aircraft crashed into the Baltic Sea. Following the crash, a Soviet submarine surfaced at the site and confiscated diplomatic mail and other items from the wreckage and local fishermen. The Finnish government, under heavy diplomatic pressure, officially suppressed the true cause of the loss for several years, describing it only as a mysterious crash.

Military Action

A German Messerschmitt Bf 108 carrying secret plans for the invasion of the Low Countries crashed in neutral Belgium after the pilot became disoriented in fog and accidentally cut the fuel supply. The passenger, Major Helmuth Reinberger, was carrying the 'Fall Gelb' (Case Yellow) invasion dossiers, which he unsuccessfully attempted to burn twice before being apprehended by Belgian border guards. The incident led to a major diplomatic crisis, a high-alert mobilization of Allied forces, and eventually forced Adolf Hitler to abandon the original invasion plan in favor of a different strategic approach through the Ardennes.

Pilot Error

Thirteen Junkers Ju 87B Stuka dive bombers crashed during a large-scale military demonstration when pilots were unable to recover from steep dives due to unexpected ground fog. The exercise, intended to showcase dive-bombing precision to senior Luftwaffe officers just weeks before the invasion of Poland, relied on a weather report indicating a cloud base at 900 meters. However, rapidly forming ground fog had reduced the ceiling to approximately 100 meters. The formation leader, Hauptmann Walter Sigel, narrowly recovered his aircraft after spotting treetops and radioed a warning to his formation via R/T (radio telephony). However, because the flight lacked radio contact with ground controllers, they were never warned of the deteriorating conditions at the target. Thirteen following aircraft impacted the ground at high speed, killing all 26 crew members.

Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT)

A Pan American Airways Sikorsky S-43B flying boat, christened Baby Clipper, crashed into Guanabara Bay while attempting to land at Santos Dumont Airport. During a circling maneuver for a normal approach, the left engine suffered a total loss of power. The aircraft entered a descending left yaw turn that steepened until the seaplane struck a caisson at Ilha das Cobras. The impact destroyed the aircraft, resulting in the deaths of 14 of the 16 people on board. This was the first accident involving a Pan Am aircraft in Brazil.

Engine Failure

A Hawker Audax I biplane crashed into a residential building on Freshfield Road in Brighton on February 11, 1939, after the pilot became lost in dense fog. The pilot, William Edward Brun, was flying low in an attempt to identify landmarks while en route from Gatwick to RAF Tangmere. After narrowly avoiding a group of Wolf Cub Scouts on Whitehawk Hill, the aircraft struck a wireless mast and a tree before slamming into a house. The impact and subsequent fuel tank explosion killed the pilot and three residents on the ground: a mother and her two young daughters.

Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT)

Northwest Airlines Flight 1 crashed shortly after takeoff from Miles City Airport when an intense fire broke out in the cockpit, incapacitating the crew or causing a loss of control. The aircraft performed erratic maneuvers, including a sharp climb and rapid descent, before crashing into a ravine half a mile southwest of the airfield. Investigators determined the fire likely originated from a leaking cross-feed fuel valve located between the pilot and co-pilot. The design of the Super Electra lacked a drainage system for leaked fuel in this area, allowing flammable vapors or liquid to ignite within the cockpit environment.

In-flight Fire

A Jersey Airways de Havilland DH.86 Express, named St Catherine's Bay, crashed shortly after takeoff from Jersey Airport, killing all 13 people on board and one person on the ground. The aircraft entered a low cloud base and initiated a climbing turn before stalling and plunging into a field. The subsequent impact and fire destroyed the aircraft and killed a farm hand working nearby. At the time, it was the deadliest aviation accident on British territory involving a rigid aircraft.

Pilot Error

The Australian National Airways Douglas DC-2, named Kyeema, crashed into the western slopes of Mount Dandenong while attempting to land at Melbourne in heavy fog. The flight crew had mistakenly identified the town of Sunbury as Daylesford through a gap in the clouds, leading them to believe they were 30 kilometres behind their actual position. Consequently, they overshot Essendon Airport and maintained a cruising altitude that resulted in a direct impact with the mountain, just below the summit. The disaster, which killed all 18 people on board including high-profile politicians and industry leaders, led to a Royal Commission and the fundamental restructuring of Australian aviation safety, including the creation of a dedicated Department of Civil Aviation and the birth of the national air traffic control system.

Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT)

A Royal Air Force Hawker Audax crashed into a residential street in Edmonton after the pilot performed unauthorized low-level maneuvers over a built-up area. The aircraft struck the roof of a house on Dunholme Road, fell into the roadway, and came to rest on two other houses, triggering a fire. The pilot and twelve people on the ground were killed, including six who died in the hospital from their injuries. Investigators determined the pilot, Sergeant Stanley Robert Morris, had deliberately disobeyed orders to remain within three miles of Hatfield Aerodrome, instead flying twelve miles away to perform low-altitude stunts. It was suspected that the pilot may have been attempting to land at nearby Pymmes Park at the time of the impact.

Pilot Error