United Airlines Flight 553
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | December 8, 1972 |
| Type | Aircraft stall |
| Site | Chicago, Illinois |
| Fatalities | 45 (2 on the ground) |
| Injuries | 16 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-222 |
| Operator | United Airlines |
| Tail number | N9031U |
| Passengers | 55 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Survivors | 18 |
United Airlines Flight 553, registration N9031U, City of Lincoln, was a Boeing 737-222 en route from Washington National Airport to Omaha, Nebraska via Chicago Midway Airport on December 8, 1972. After the crew was told to go around and abort their first landing attempt on runway 31L, the aircraft struck trees and then roofs along West 71st Street before crashing into a home in the 3700 block of West 70th Place. A total of 45 people were killed in the accident, 43 of them on the plane. The 3 man flight crew was killed, but the 3 flight attendants survived. The pilots' union contract at the time compelled United Airlines to have three licensed pilots onboard, even though Boeing had designed the 737 to be flown by a crew of 2, instead of 3. The only person to survive in the forward part of the plane ahead of the wing was the First Class flight attendant. She was severely injured in the crash and her jumpseat collapsed. Fifteen passengers and the other two flight attendants in coach survived.
Among the passengers killed were Illinois Congressman George W. Collins and Watergate suspect E. Howard Hunt's wife, Dorothy Hunt. Also killed was Michele Clark, a correspondent for CBS News. Clark was one of the first female African-American network correspondents.
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[edit] Investigation
The accident was, at the time, one of the most investigated airplane crashes in history. Mrs. Hunt's purse contained $10,585 in cash and she had purchased flight insurance for $250,000 prior to boarding the flight. Conspiracy theorists believed the plane was targeted by government agencies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation assisted the National Transportation Safety Board in its investigation when claims the flight was sabotaged surfaced. The office of the Cook County Medical Examiner convened a coroner's jury and launched a parallel investigation. Some have claimed the FBI withheld or destroyed evidence.[citation needed] The NTSB issued its report after recreating the last minutes of the flight based on the flight and voice recording instruments, interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses on the ground, and physical evidence. According to the report, when Midway's control tower directed the crew to abort the landing and try again, they became distracted and failed to prepare for a proper landing in low visibility. As they attempted to pull the jet from the landing descent, the crew forgot to deactivate the wing spoilers. The plane stalled, and then crashed.
Thirty-three years later to the day, in 2005, Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 skidded off the same runway, now 31C, at Midway Airport and on to a residential street.
[edit] Trivia
- United still flies a flight under the 553 designation; currently this route is between MCI and DEN.
