United Air Lines Flight 615 was a US transcontinental east–west airline service from

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Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

and

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. On August 24, 1951, the

Douglas DC-6 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 t ...

with

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operating the service, crashed on approach to Oakland, causing the death of all 44 passengers and 6 crew members on board. The flight departed

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at 10:59 p.m. CST en route to Oakland. At around 4:16 a.m., the plane was approaching Oakland. At this time, the pilot, Marion W. Hedden of Los Altos, had talked with the control tower of the Civil Aeronautics Administration at the airport preparing for his landing, and had mentioned no trouble. At 4:25 a.m. Flight 615 was cleared for the straight-in approach into Oakland. This approach clearance was the last radio transmission with the flight. The plane crashed into mountainous terrain southeast of Oakland, careening into Tolman Peak and over its knoll, scattering on the downslope and into Dry Gulch Canyon below in a fiery explosion. All 50 persons on board perished. After an investigation, it was determined that the pilot ignored the prescribed instrument landing procedures. The pilot instead relied on visual reference, using the copilot's automatic direction finder (ADF). The ADF threw the plane off course and below the prescribed altitude of .

References

External links

*
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: T ...

PDFUnion City History - Crash of Flight 615
- includes period photographs and a chart excerpt from CAB report

- includes hiking directions to the crash site

- includes full crew and passenger list
Mishalov.com - The Crash of a DC-6B in Alameda County, California
- includes current-day photographs of crash site and topographic map * from Airdisaster.com {{Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in the 1950s Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1951 History of Alameda County, California 615 Disasters in California Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-6 Airliner accidents and incidents in California Union City, California 1951 in California August 1951 events in the United States

See also

References

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