United Airlines Flight 409
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | October 6, 1955 |
| Type | Controlled flight into terrain |
| Site | Centennial, Wyoming |
| Fatalities | 66 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Douglas DC-4 |
| Operator | United Airlines |
| Tail number | N30062 |
| Passengers | 63 |
| Crew | 3 |
United Airlines Flight 409 was a scheduled flight departing from Denver, Colorado to Salt Lake City, Utah on October 6, 1955. The aircraft registration number was N30062, a Douglas DC-4. The aircraft crashed into Medicine Bow Peak, near Centennial, Wyoming killing all 66 people on board (63 passengers, 3 crew members.) Passengers included members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and military personnel. At the time, this was the worst crash in U.S. commercial aviation history.
Flight 409 left Denver, Colorado at 6:33 AM on October 6, 1955. This was 83 minutes after its scheduled departure time. The flight path 409 was expected to take was north of Laramie, Wyoming, then over the town of Rock River, Wyoming, and onward to Salt Lake City.
The plane did not report in over the town of Rock Springs at 8:11 AM as expected. With the plane's status unknown, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was notified of the missing craft. No radar was in place for civil aviation in this region in 1955. With no radar traces, manual searches were required to find the aircraft.
The Wyoming Air National Guard dispatched two planes, one of which found the aircraft's wreckage atop Medicine Bow Peak. The pilot of the search plane, Mel Conine, speculated that the plane may have been taking an unauthorized short cut away from its specified flight plan in an effort to make up for its 83 minute delay out of Denver.
Study of the crash site suggested a nose up attitude and an unusually low airspeed 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 indicating an inaccurate altitude, leading the pilot to believe he was higher than he actually was
- Mountain obscuration by clouds, preventing visual sighting of the mountain peak before too late to react to prevent the crash
- Turbulence, specifically downdrafts, around Medicine Bow peak, pushing flight 409 into the mountain
Possible incapacitation of crew by carbon monoxide emanating from a faulty cabin heater was speculated upon based on recovery crew observations that crew bodies appeared 'discolored'. This theory was never proven.
Recovery of passenger and crew remains were extremely difficult, due to the terrain the aircraft crashed on. The recovery effort was completed on October 11, 1955. After investigation of the site was completed, United Airlines requested that remaining debris be destroyed by the military. Explosives and napalm were used to destroy them, although destruction was never completely accomplished. Small fragments of flight 409's airframe still exist on this mountaintop.
Flight 409's crash, and other crashes which occurred shortly after convinced the U.S. Congress to improve airline safety procedures, and increase the use of radar for civil aviation.
United uses the flight 409 designation today on its New York (La Guardia) - Denver - Seattle/Tacoma route.
