The 1955 Hawaii R6D-1 crash was an accident involving a

Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, it was reworked after the war to compete with ...

of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

which crashed into a mountain peak in Hawaii on 22 March 1955, killing all 66 people on board. At the time, it was the worst crash involving any variant of the Douglas DC-6 airlinerAviation Safety Network Aircraft Accident Douglas R6D-1 (DC-6) 131612 Honolulu, HI
/ref>Associated Press, "66 Killed as Navy Plane Hits Hawaiian Peak," ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', story dated 22 March 1955, quoted in full a

the second-worst aviation accident in U.S. history, and one of the worst air accidents anywhere in history, and it equalled the 11 August mid-air collision of two

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

C-119G Flying Boxcars over

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and the 6 October

United Airlines Flight 409 United Air Lines Flight 409 was a scheduled flight which originated in New York City, New York. The final flight destination was San Francisco, California, with stops in Chicago, Denver and Salt Lake City. The aircraft operating the service, a Do ...

crash as the deadliest air accident of 1955. It remains the worst air disaster in the history of Hawaii and the deadliest accident involving a

heavier-than-air An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. C ...

aircraft in the history of United States

naval aviation Naval aviation is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. Naval aviation is typically projected to a position nearer the target by way of an aircraft carrier. Carrier-based a ...

Aircraft

The R6D-1 involved,

Bureau Number In the United States, all military aircraft display a serial number to identify individual aircraft. These numbers are located on the aircraft tail, so they are sometimes referred to unofficially as "tail numbers". On the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spi ...

131612, had been manufactured in 1953 and was based at

Moffett Field Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located in an Local government in California#Counties, unincorporated part of Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara County, California, United States, ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The R6D-1 was the U.S. Navy version of the

s C-118 Liftmaster and of the civilian

Douglas DC-6B The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, it was reworked after the war to compete with ...

airliner.

Flight history

The R6D-1 was carrying a U.S. Navy crew of nine and was loaded to capacity with 57 passengers on a

Military Air Transport Service The Military Air Transport Service (MATS) is an inactive Department of Defense Unified Command. Activated on 1 June 1948, MATS was a consolidation of the United States Navy's Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) and the United States Air Force's ...

flight from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, to

Travis Air Force Base Travis Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base under the operational control of the Air Mobility Command (AMC), located three miles (5 km) east of the central business district of the city of Fairfield, in Solano County, Californi ...

, California, via

Hickam Air Force Base Hickam Air Force Base is a United States Air Force installation, named in honor of aviation pioneer Lieutenant Colonel Horace Meek Hickam. The installation merged in 2010 with Naval Station Pearl Harbor to become part of the newly formed Joint ...

Territory of Hawaii The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory ( Hawaiian: ''Panalāʻau o Hawaiʻi'') was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 30, 1900, until August 21, 1959, when most of its territory, excluding ...

. The passengers included 55 servicemen – 17 U.S. Air Force, 22

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

, 12

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

, and four U.S. Navy personnel – and two civilians, who were the wife and three-year-old daughter of one of the military passengers. After making its stop at Hickam, the aircraft took off at 6:06 p.m. local time on 21 March 1955 for the final leg of its flight to California. The crew began to experience radio problems, and four hours and 20 minutes after departure they decided to return to Hickam. The R6D-1 was flying in a heavy rainstorm as it descended to land at Hickam early on 22 March 1955. At 2:03 a.m. local time while on its descent, the aircraft flew into

Pali Kea Peak Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...

at the southern end of

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

Waianae Range Waianae () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States. As of the 2020 census, the CDP population was 13,614. Its name means "waters of the mullet". Its etymology is shared with the far northern Wellington subu ...

, northwest of

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

. Eyewitnesses reported that the pilot turned his landing lights on just before striking the mountain and, presumably seeing the mountain ahead, banked sharply to avoid it. The maneuver was too late, and the R6D-1 struck a sheer cliff about below the tip of the peak and exploded.Peak height fro
Pukui, Mary Kawena, Samuel H. Elbert, and Esther T. Mookini. ''Place Names of Hawaii: Revised and Expanded Edition''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1974.
, p. 177 The explosion was loud enough to sound like a thunderclap to witnesses away. During the impact, the wings separated from the aircrafts fuselage, which already was ablaze as it fell in one piece to the bottom of a gully at a point about from the

Lualualei Lualualei, Hawaii is the largest coastal valley on the leeward side of Oahu in Hawaii. It is located on the west side of the Waianae Range Waianae () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States. As of the 2020 ...

Naval Ammunition Magazine and burned. Witnesses reported that the fire was large enough to redden the night sky for over two hours, and remained hot enough that rescuers were unable to approach the wreckage for several hours. No survivors were found. The accident was the first of two major air disasters involving an R6D-1 in less than 19 months, the second being the disappearance of an R6D-1 over the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

in October 1956.

Investigation

The post-crash investigation concluded that the R6D-1s crew had made a navigational error which placed the aircraft off course. Straying into the Waianae Range in darkness without realizing their error until almost the last second, the crew flew the aircraft into the peak.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawaii R6D-1 crash Accidents and incidents involving United States Navy and Marine Corps aircraft Aviation accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-6 Aviation accidents and incidents in Hawaii Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1955 Honolulu County, Hawaii 1955 in Hawaii United States Navy in the 20th century March 1955 events in the United States

Aircraft

Flight history

Investigation

See also

References