Standard Air Lines Flight 897R was a domestic passenger flight between

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

and

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

. At 7:43am on July 12, 1949, the flight, operated by a Curtiss C-46E ( registered ), crashed in

Chatsworth, California Chatsworth is a suburban neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley. The area was home to Native Americans, some of whom left caves containing rock art. Chatsworth was explored and colonized by the Spanish be ...

, upon approach to Burbank, killing 35 of the 48 passengers and crew on board. Curtiss C-46E Standard Air Lines (5230304373)

The flight

The

Standard Air Lines Standard Air Lines was an airline founded by Jack Frye, Paul E. Richter and Walter A. Hamilton in 1927. The three had founded Aero Corporation of California in 1926 in Los Angeles and Standard was made a subsidiary of Aero in 1927. History Stand ...

flight departed from Albuquerque Municipal Airport at 4:24am for a flight to the Hollywood-Lockheed Air Terminal (today called Burbank Airport). At 7:36am the aircraft was cleared to land at Burbank. After that, there was no other communication from the flight.

Crash

The aircraft was flying in level flight with the gear down, on an ILS approach to Hollywood-Lockheed Air Terminal (today called Burbank Airport) on a Tuesday morning. The aircraft descended in patchy fog below the minimum altitude permitted and its right wing tip struck the side of a hill at 1,890 feet above sea level, pulling the plane around 90 degrees. The C-46 hit the ground and bounced 300 feet into the air before crashing in Chatsworth, CA, some 430 feet below the crest of Santa Susana Pass, just north of the Chatsworth Reservoir. It was originally reported that a fist fight had broken out between two male passengers, however survivors later stated that the fight was not the cause of the crash but instead it was based on pilot error. The CAB report stated, "This accident was caused solely by the pilot voluntarily going below the prescribed minimum altitude and descending into the overcast...".

Survivors

Actress

Caren Marsh Doll Caren Marsh Doll ( Morris; born April 6, 1919), also credited as Caren Marsh, is an American former stage and screen actress and dancer specializing in modern dance and tap. She is notable as Judy Garland's stand-in in '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1 ...

was among the survivors of the crash. She recalled "I heard screams and a fire crackling....Then I remember a woman grabbed my arm. She was wonderful. I heard her say 'Let's get out of here'. She dragged me out of the plane and into the brush."

Aftermath

Due to regulation violations, Standard Air Lines was ordered to cease non-scheduled operations, and it merged with Viking Air Lines to form North American Airlines shortly afterwards.

References

External links

Report
from the

Civil Aeronautics Board The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was an agency of the federal government of the United States, formed in 1938 and abolished in 1985, that regulated aviation services including scheduled passenger airline serviceStringer, David H."Non-Skeds: Th ...

PDF
*http://planecrashinfo.com/1949/1949-32.htm
Photo of aircraftPhoto of crash from L.A. Times archiveImage of men searching the wreckage of Standard Airlines C-46 for clues regarding the cause of the crash, 1949.

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library,

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. {{coord, 34.2583, N, 118.6375, W, source:wikidata, display=title Airliner accidents and incidents in California Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1949 Disasters in California Chatsworth, Los Angeles 1949 in California Accidents and incidents involving the Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando July 1949 events in the United States Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain