Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 17 March 1960 |
| Type | In-flight disintegration |
| Site | Cannelton, Indiana |
| Passengers | 57 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 63 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Lockheed L-188 Electra |
| Operator | Northwest Orient Airlines |
| Tail number | N121US |
| Flight origin | Chicago Midway Airport, Chicago, Illinois |
| Destination | Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida |
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, crashed near Cannelton, Indiana (10 miles east of Tell City, Indiana) on March 17, 1960. The flight carried 57 passengers and 6 crew members. There were no survivors.
Contents |
[edit] Crash and causes
Flight 710 was a regularly scheduled flight departing Minneapolis-St. Paul to Miami with a stop at Chicago Midway Airport. Radio contact with the Indianapolis Control Center was made at approximately 3:00 pm local time. About 15 minutes later, witnesses reported seeing the airplane break into two pieces with the right wing falling as one piece and the remainder of the craft plunging to earth near Tell City in southern Indiana.[1]
NASA, Boeing and Lockheed engineers determined that the probable cause for the accident was in-flight separation of the right wing while cruising at 18,000 feet due to flutter caused by unexplained reduced stiffness of the engine mounts.[2] Six months earlier, a Braniff International Airways L-188 Electra disintegrated over Texas at 15,000 feet, killing all on board.[2] This second similar crash moved the Federal Aviation Administration to immediately issue a reduced cruise speed directive while investigators tried to determine the cause of the fatal crashes.
[edit] The Kiwanis Electra Memorial
The citizens of Perry County and the Cannelton Kiwanis Club raised funds for a memorial at the site of the 1960 crash. Dedicated in 1961, the Kiwanis Electra Memorial marks the site. It is located on Millstone Road, which may be reached via Indiana highways 66 and 166, eight miles east of Cannelton, Indiana.
Cannelton newspaper editor and civic booster Bob Cummings wrote the words which are inscribed on the memorial along with the names and symbols of the religious faiths of those who died aboard the plane. The inscription reads: "This memorial, dedicated to the memory of 63 persons who died in an airplane crash at this location, March 17, 1960, was erected by public subscription in the hope that such tragedies will be eliminated."
