United Airlines Flight 608
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 A DC-6 similar to UAL's ill-fated Flight 608
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | October 24, 1947 |
| Type | Inflight Fire |
| Site | Bryce Canyon |
| Passengers | 47 |
| Crew | 5 |
| Injuries | 0 |
| Fatalities | 52 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Douglas DC-6 |
| Operator | United Airlines |
| Tail number | NC37510 |
| Flight origin | Los Angeles International Airport |
| Destination | Chicago O'Hare Airport |
United Airlines Flight 608 a DC-6 (NC37510) was on a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago when it crashed at 12:29 pm on October 24, 1947 about 1.5 miles SE of Bryce Canyon Airport, killing all 5 crew members and 47 passengers on board. [1]
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[edit] Accident Sequence
United Flight 608 departed from Los Angeles, California, at 10:23 a.m. on a routine flight to Chicago, Illinois. At 12:21 p.m. the plane's pilot, Capt. E. L. McMillen, radioed that there was a fire in the baggage compartment which they could not control, with smoke entering the passenger cabin. The flight requested an emergency clearance to Bryce Canyon Airport, Utah, which was granted.
As the aircraft descended, pieces of the plane, including portions of the right wing, started to fall off and one of the emergency flares on the wing ignited. At 12:27 p.m., the last radio transmission was heard from the plane: "We may make it - approaching a strip." Accounts from observers state the plane passed over the canyon mesa, approximately 1500 yards from the airstrip. With gusts from the canyon floor pulling down the side of the mesa, the crippled aircraft, only 10 feet off the ground, was pulled out of control and crashed.
Ground observers reported that occupants of the airliner, prior to the impact, were throwing things out the cabin door in an attempt to lighten the load as the DC-6 descended over the canyon. The airliner crashed onto National Park Service land, killing all 52 passengers and crew on board.
[edit] Famous Victims
Among the victims on board the plane was Jeff Burkett, a rookie punter for the Chicago Cardinals.
[edit] Cause of the Crash
Just over three weeks later, on November 11, 1947, a similar in-flight incident almost claimed a second commercial DC-6 airliner.
An American Airlines DC-6 (NC90741), on a flight from San Francisco to Chicago with 25 crew and passengers aboard, reported an on-board fire over Arizona and managed to make an emergency landing in flames at the airport at Gallup, New Mexico. All 25 occupants escaped the burning plane, and the fire was extinguished. But unlike the Bryce Canyon crash a month earlier, investigators now had a damaged but intact aircraft to examine and study.
The cause of both the Bryce Canyon crash and the near-fatal Gallup incident was eventually traced to a design flaw. A cabin heater intake scoop was positioned too close to the number 3 alternate tank air vent. If flightcrews allowed a tank to be overfilled during a routine fuel transfer between wing tanks, it could lead to several gallons of excess fuel being sucked into the cabin heater system, which then ignited the fuel. This caused the fire which destroyed the United aircraft at Bryce Canyon and severely damaged the American aircraft that landed in flames at Gallup.
In the Bryce Canyon crash, the Civil Aeronautics Board found the causes to be the design flaw, inadequate training of the crew about the danger, and the failure of the crew to halt the fuel transfer before the tank overflowed.
The UAL 608 crash, and the second incident in Gallup, New Mexico three weeks later, led to the temporary grounding of all DC-6 aircraft while corrective modifications were made on the fuel tank and heater air intake venting systems to prevent any similar incidents from occurring.
[edit] Notes
The procedures developed as a result of this disaster make this crash historically important. It was the first time a plane was reconstructed from its wreckage to help determine the cause of the crash. This is now a standard procedure.
Wreckage was loaded onto trucks and moved to Douglas Aircraft Company in California where the plane was reassembled.
As a result of the disaster the entire fleet of 80 aircraft including the President's plane, which was a sister ship, were recalled. Design changes that were made thereafter still stand today.
United flight 608 is now operated on Chicago (ORD) to Washington D.C (DCA) route. [2]
