United Air Lines Flight 409 was a scheduled flight which originated in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, 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
Douglas DC-4
The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s ...
propliner
A propliner is a large, propeller-driven airliner. Typically, the term is used for piston engine airliners that flew before the large scale advent of airliners of the jet age. With the notable exception of the de Havilland Albatross and Fokker F- ...
,
registration
Register or registration may refer to:
Arts entertainment, and media Music
* Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc.
* ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller
* Registration (organ), th ...
crashed into
Medicine Bow Peak
Medicine Bow Peak () is the highest peak in the Snowy Range, a part of the Medicine Bow Mountains, about west of Laramie, Wyoming. It lies within Medicine Bow National Forest and is the highest point in southern Wyoming. The summit lies in ...
, near Laramie, Wyoming, on October 6, 1955, killing all 66 people on board (63 passengers, 3 crew members). The victims included five female members of the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is an American choir, acting as part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It has performed in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for ov ...
and military personnel.
At the time, this was the deadliest airline crash in the history of American
commercial aviation
Commercial aviation is the part of civil aviation that involves operating aircraft for remuneration or hire, as opposed to private aviation.
Definition
Commercial aviation is not a rigorously defined category. All commercial air transport and ae ...
.
Another 66 lives had been lost earlier that year in the
March 22 crash in
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
of a
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 ...
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 aircraft, military transport near the end of World War II, it was reworked aft ...
military transport aircraft
A military transport aircraft, military cargo aircraft or airlifter is a military aircraft, military-owned transport aircraft used to support military operations by airlifting troops and military equipment. Transport aircraft are crucial to ma ...
, and 66 had also died in the 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 ...
(
1955 Altensteig mid-air collision
The Altensteig mid-air collision occurred on 11 August 1955 when two United States Air Force Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcars collided and crashed three miles from Altensteig in West Germany. The aircraft were part of a formation of nine C-119s fly ...
) on August 11, placing the three crashes in a three-way tie as the deadliest aviation incidents in 1955.
Aviation Safety Network: Accident Description
/ref>
Timeline
Flight 409 left New York, New York one hour and 11 minutes late. Routine crew changes were made in Chicago and Denver. Flight 409 departed Denver, Colorado at 6:33 a.m. on October 6, 1955, 83 minutes after its scheduled departure time. The assigned path the airliner was expected to fly was along airways V-4 Denver to Laramie, Wyoming
Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was estimated 32,711 in 2019, making it the third-largest city in Wyoming after Cheyenne and Casper. Located on the Laramie River in southeastern ...
V-118 to Rock River, Wyoming
Rock River is a town in Albany County, Wyoming, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 245.
Geography
Rock River is located at (41.740770, –105.974602).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a tota ...
radio, V-6 to Fort Bridger, Wyoming
Fort Bridger is a census-designated place (CDP) in eastern Uinta County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 345 at the 2010 census. The community takes its name from the eponymous Fort Bridger, established in 1842, which is located wit ...
, and V-32 to a landing in Salt Lake City. The flight was operating under Visual Flight Rules
In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better ...
and was assigned a cruising altitude of 10,000 feet. Because the aircraft was not pressurized
{{Wiktionary
Pressurization or pressurisation is the application of pressure in a given situation or environment.
Industrial
Industrial equipment is often maintained at pressures above or below atmospheric.
Atmospheric
This is the process by ...
, the altitude was chosen to keep the passengers and crew from experiencing the discomfort that flying higher could cause. The route assigned to the airliner was specifically designed to allow safe passage at 10,000 feet over the continental divide
A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...
in the Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
.
An expected position report from the United crew, scheduled for 8:11 a.m. while over Rock Springs, was not received, and repeated attempts to make radio contact with flight 409 were met with no response. With the airliner's status unknown, the Civil Aeronautics Authority
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: T ...
was alerted to the missing aircraft. No radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
was in place for civil aviation in this region in 1955. With no radar traces, manual searches were required to find the aircraft.
Search effort
The Wyoming Air National Guard
The Wyoming Air National Guard (WY ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Wyoming, United States of America. It is, along with the Wyoming Army National Guard, an element of the Wyoming National Guard.
As state militia units, the units in t ...
launched two search aircraft: a two-seat T-33 Shooting Star
The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then d ...
piloted by Mel Conine and a single seat F-80 Shooting Star
The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was the first jet fighter used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II. Designed and built by Lockheed in 1943 and delivered just 143 days from the start of design, prod ...
piloted by Ed Weed. Working on the assumption that the United plane may have taken an unauthorized short cut to make up for the 83-minute delay out of Denver, the two search planes pointed their aircraft toward the highest mountains in the region, Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow Peak. After a search of Elk Mountain failed to find the missing DC-4, Conine and his observer spotted at 11:40 a.m. a black stain and wreckage just southwest of the highest portion of Medicine Bow Peak. Turbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...
kept them too far away to locate any possible survivors and they left the site to return to their base in Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...
.[ - extensive coverage and photographs]
The ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' (Oct. 7, 1955) reported:
"First rescuers to reach the scene said they had found about 50 bodies strewn along a 300-foot course down the face of the mountain. Only a tail piece, part of the fuselage and a wing of the plane had been located at mid-afternoon by rescuers who fought snowdrifts and a howling wind on the 12,005-foot Medicine Bow Peak. The mountain is about 40 miles west of here in the Snowy Range
The Medicine Bow Mountains are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains that extend from northern Colorado into southern Wyoming. The northern extent of this range is the sub-range the Snowy Range. From the northern end of Colorado's Never Summer ...
. The front part of the split plane was believed to have fallen down the other side of the peak. Another rescue group went up the north face of the mountain from Rawlins. The operation was suspended this evening because of a snowstorm and darkness.
The scene was marked by two huge patches of oil where the plane's engines apparently struck about 50-75 feet from the peak. The wreckage then slid down the steep incline in two ravines, much of it coming to rest 300 feet down on a small glacier. I don't see how there would be a chance of anyone surviving, said Capt. Conine, Wyoming Air National Guard jet pilot, who was one of the first to spot the wreckage.
A C-47
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...
was sent from Cheyenne, Wyo., to circle the peak, particularly the northwest side, to search for the front portion of the plane. The Civil Aeronautics Administration said planes were unable to fly near the mountain because of the weather conditions.
Recovery
Recovery of the widely scattered remains of the victims was extremely challenging due to the difficult terrain
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...
at the crash site. At the base of the almost perpendicular cliff where the aircraft hit, movement was hindered by a wide talus of weathered, fragmented rock and large boulders, all piled loosely on a steep slope. Mountaineers doing the recovery work also had to be constantly wary of rock falls that might be triggered by the activities of those above them on the cliff face. Cold weather and occasional snow also played a role in impeding recovery efforts. The recovery of human remains was not completed until the evening of October 11, 1955, five full days after the accident.
Investigation
Due to safety concerns, the CAB accident investigation team —not trained in alpine mountaineering techniques— was unable to visit the cliff location where the DC-4 initially hit. Study of the wreckage that could be retrieved for examination suggested a nose up attitude and an unusually low airspeed
In aviation, airspeed is the speed of an aircraft relative to the air. Among the common conventions for qualifying airspeed are:
* Indicated airspeed ("IAS"), what is read on an airspeed gauge connected to a Pitot-static system;
* Calibrated a ...
of the plane, implying that the plane was attempting a climb at the time of its crash. The reasons for this are not explicitly known, but several theories exist:
* An altimeter
An altimeter or an altitude meter is an instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, which is related to the term bathymetry, the measurement of depth under water. The m ...
indicating an inaccurate altitude
Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
, leading the pilot to believe he was lower than he actually was;
* Mountain obscuration by clouds, preventing visual sighting of the mountain peak before it was too late to react to prevent the crash;
* Turbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...
, specifically downdrafts
In meteorology, an updraft is a small-scale current of rising air, often within a cloud.
Overview
Localized regions of warm or cool air will exhibit vertical movement. A mass of warm air will typically be less dense than the surrounding region, ...
, around Medicine Bow peak, pushing Flight 409 into the mountain.
Possible incapacitation of crew by carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...
emanating from a faulty cabin heater was speculated upon based on recovery crew observations that crew bodies appeared 'discolored.' This theory was never proven, and the CAB report specifically states that there was no evidence to support crew incapacitation.
After the investigation of the accessible wreckage was completed, United Airlines requested that the remaining debris be destroyed by the military. Attempts were made to accomplish this, but despite the use of explosives, artillery fire and —according to most sources— napalm
Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated al ...
bombs dropped from aircraft, complete obliteration of the wreckage was not possible. One source, a 2007 book about the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group
''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess ...
, contradicts the assertion that military jets bombed the site with napalm; instead, the book states that the cliff face was mined with explosives that were detonated in the spring of 1956, and the event was tightly controlled and not publicized. Regardless of the disposal method, small fragments of flight 409's airframe and parts of the engines still exist in the area surrounding the crash site.[ - extensive coverage from multiple sources]
Legacy
Prior to the loss of United 409, the deadliest scheduled airline accident in U.S. history was the June 1950 disappearance of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 was a DC-4 propliner operating its daily transcontinental service between New York City and Seattle when it disappeared on the night of June 23, 1950. The flight was carrying 55 passengers and three crew mem ...
over Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
, when 58 died. The 66 lives lost on Medicine Bow Peak remained the highest death toll on a scheduled airline flight in the U.S. for less than a year. In June 1956 two airliners, a Super Constellation
The Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation is an American aircraft, a member of the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line. The L-1049 was Lockheed's response to the successful Douglas DC-6 airliner, first flying in 1950. The aircraft was also produc ...
and a DC-7
The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. A derivative of the DC-6, it was the last major piston engine-powered transport made by Douglas, being developed shortly after the earl ...
, collided over the Grand Canyon, killing 128 people. Flight 409's crash, and other crashes and mid-air collisions in the United States that occurred over the next several years, convinced the U.S. Congress to improve airline safety
Aviation safety is the study and practice of managing risks in aviation. This includes preventing aviation accidents and incidents through research, educating air travel personnel, passengers and the general public, as well as the design of airc ...
procedures, and to increase civil aviation radar coverage.
On August 25, 2001, a privately funded bronze memorial plaque was dedicated in the Miner's Camp turnout (), along Wyoming Highway 130
Wyoming Highway 130 (WYO 130) is a state highway in the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is known locally as the Snowy Range Road. It makes its way west from Laramie across the plains, and rises over the Medicine Bow Mountains. The road then turns n ...
(Snowy Range Road). The plaque faces the mountain where the crash occurred. The plaque reads, "In memory of the 66 passengers and crew that perished on Medicine Bow Peak October 6, 1955".
See also
* 1955 in aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1955:
Events
* The British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) acquires a 49 percent ownership stake in Middle East Airlines, displacing Pan American World Airways as an owner of the airline.
Janua ...
* 1955 in the United States
* Aviation accidents and incidents
An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the ''intention of f ...
* List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
This list of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft includes notable events that have a corresponding Wikipedia article. Entries in this list involve passenger or cargo aircraft that are operating commercially and meet this list ...
Notes and references
;Notes
;References
External links
Final report
- 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
Newsreel footage of the crash scene from 1955
''efootage.com'' (requires QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...
)
*
*
* - includes names of the deceased
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:United Airlines Flight 0309
Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain
Airliner accidents and incidents in Wyoming
Carbon County, Wyoming
409
Disasters in Wyoming
Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-4
1955 in Wyoming
October 1955 events in the United States
Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1955
Medicine Bow National Forest