Electra Plane Crash Kills 61

Congressmen Demand Probe Of New Disaster
 

11 Survive Mishap In Boston Harbor
 

BOSTON (AP) — An Eastern Airlines four-engined Electra tansport plunged into Boston harbor on takeoff Tuesday, killing 61 of the 72 aboard. All of the 11 known survivors were injured severely.

A mysterious “secret document” figured in the crash. State Police Capt. Carl Larsen, in charge of rescue operations, said a member of the U.S. Air Force office of special investigation told him it was aboard at takeoff but later missing. Larsen said the F.B.I. started a search.

The crash, one of a series of mishaps involving the turboprop Electra and the second crash of that type in less than three weeks, brought urgent demands from Congressmen for investigation.

The plane took off with 67 passengers and a crew of five from Logan International Airport at 5:45 p.m., bound for Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C., Greenville, S.C., and Atlanta. No Canadians were known to be aboard. It cam down about 200 yards offshore.

“The thing was split wide open,” said Lt. Cmdr. Everett Cook of the U.S. naval reserve who saw the plane after it nosed into the water off the Winthrop Yacht Club.

“When I got there, part of the plane was still afloat,” said Commander Donald Regan, one of the first to reach the scene. “A good many of the passengers were strapped to their seats and couldn’t get out. The seats were floating. I noticed that their weight was pulling them over so that there heads were in the water.

“They were all a mess–blood, broken legs, split skulls, and everything else.”

The pilot, Capt. C.W. Fitts, and Co-Pilot M.J. Calloway, were missing. Flight engineer Malfolm Hall was killed. Two stewardesses survived. They are Joan Berry, 22, and Patricia Davies.

“I was in the tail when we hit — it saved my life,” Miss Berry said.

Hundreds joined in the rescue effort — police, firemen, owners of small boats, skin divers, pilots of coast guard helicopters and boats and navy ships. Men waded knee-deep through oil-smeared mud flats to bring back bodies.

60 Persons Killed in Plane Disaster

Airliner Crashes At Boston
 

FBI Seeking Lost Document
 

BOSTON (AP) — Moments after leaving a runway on a flight to the south, a huge Eastern Airlines plane with 71 people and a “secret document” aboard plunged into the muddy waters of Boston Harbor late Tuesday.

Six hours later the death toll was set at 60. There were 11 known survivors, all injured and being treated in three hospitals.

Among the passengers were 15 young recruits of the U.S. Marine Corps, en reoute to boot camp at Parris Island, S.C. Ten of the rookie Leathernecks were among the known dead and at least three others were injured.

FBI Searching

Existence of the unidentified secret document became known late Tuesday. Capt. Carl Larsen, State Police officer in charge of rescue operations at the scene, said he was informed of it by a member of the Office of Special Investigation (OSI), a branch of the U.S. Air Force.

Capt. Larsen said he was told the document had been aboard the plane at takeoff and was later missing. He said the FBI started a search for the document and an investigation of its disappearance.

Thomas L. Hakcett, an official of the OSI at the airport, admitted his organization was looking for “something important” but said it was not top secret.

Inquiries Made

Although the FBI office in downtown Boston refused to comment, an airline spokesman said the FBI had made inquiries at Eastern’s in-town office.

The turbo-prop Electra plane — second of its kind to crash in less than three weks — carried 66 passengers and a crew of 5. Early reports from the airline said there were 67 passengers, but it later developed that one — Harold C. Thomas of North Easton, Mass. — missed the flight, No. 375.

The two stewardesses survived the accident but were hospitalized.

Pilot Missing

The Miami office of Eastern Airlines said that the pilot and co-pilot also survived, but later could not confirm that they had. They could not be located in any hospital. The same Miami report said the flight engineer was missing.

The plane, bound for Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C., Greenville, S.C., and Atlanta, Ga., came down in muddy water about 200 yards offshore. It was at low tide at the time — 6:45 p.m — and some rescuers slogged through seas of mud, while others hurried out in many kinds of boats.

The airliner broke into two pieces.

Bodies, still strapped in their seats, popped into the water and floated about the scene. Many were badly cut and disfigured. Some were soaked with oil.

The scene took on an eerie appearance after darkness fell. Flashlights pierced the murkiness, helicopters hovered at low altitudes and shone searchlights down on the wreckage.

Small boats, skindivers, wading rescuers toiled to get the injured and the dead to shore.

A naval reserve commander, Donald Regan of Winthrop, a Boston suburb bordering Logan International Airport, was among the first to reach the scene.

He said he helped pull out five or six survivors, as well as some bodies.

The most recent accident involving an Electra was Sept. 14. On that occasion all 76 aboard the craft lived to tell about it. The plane struck a dike on a landing approach at New York’s La Guardia Airport, flipped over on its back and burned.

Before that crash Electra planes had figured in three accidents taking a total of 162 lives. Two of those crashes occurred when the planes lost wings in seemingly safe flying weather. The Lockheed Aircraft Corp., the builders of the $2.3 million planes, then began a modificaiton program while the Federal Aviation Agency ordered all Electras to be flown at reduced speed.

The Boston Globe quoted FAA Administrator Elwood R. Quesada as saying he has no plans to ground Electras at this time.

“From the sketchy information we have so far, it appears there is no relation between this accident and the trouble that attracted public attention.”

Quesada was alluding to demands for grounding Electras that followed a Northwest Airlines crash in Tell City, Ind., last March when 63 people were killed. In that tragedy, outer engine damage combined with air turbulence were ascribed as factors.

Stanley E. Cootey, 39, of Winthrop, was one of the first at the scene of Tuesday’s crash. He described it this way:

“It all happened just as my family finished supper. There was this big explosion and I ran from my house, about 100 yards from the seawall.

“I heard people yelling in the water for help. One woman screamed, ‘Come out and help us. Get some help to us.’

“I could see the tail section sticking out of the water. I jumped over the seawall and started pushing through the mud.

“Soon I dived into the water with all my clithes[sic] on and started swimming. I could see four or five persons clinging to the tail section. A small boat came up with a body on it.

“The entire bay area was strewn with debris. It was hard to tell which was debris and which were bodies.

“I could see seats floating in the way and people were still strapped to them.”

A dozen additional Marines, who were scheduled to make the flight, missed death or injury because there weren’t enough seats for them.

Death Rides Electras

NEW YORK (AP) — The crash of an Eastern Airlines Electra in Boston Harbor Tuesday was the second crash of a plane of that type in less than three weeks and one more of a series of mishaps involving Electras.

A total of 162 persons were killed in three previous Electra crashes. In a fourth, at La Guardia Airport Sept. 14, all 76 persons aboard escaped without serious injury.

It was a turbo-prop-propeller driven rather than pure jet-Electra which plunged into the East River here Feb. 3, 1959, taking 65 persons to their deaths.

Sixty-three died in a crash of an Electra near Tell City, Ind., last March 17, and 34 were killed in September 1959 when an Electra crashed near Buffalo City, Tex.

In the latter two crashes the planes lost wings in seemingly safe flying weather.

Secret Document in Air Crash Mystery

BOSTON, October 5. — A mysterious document was missing today in the aftermath of the crash of an Eastern Airlines Lockheed Electra in Boston Harbor with a heavy loss of life.

Only 11 of the 71 on board were known to have survived.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation refused to comment on a police report that it had taken over the phase of the inquiry relating to the document.

Existence of the unidentified secret document became known late last night. Captain Carl Larsen, State police officer in charge of rescue operations at the scene, said he was informed of it by a member of the Office of Special Investigations (O.S.I.), a branch of the U.S. air force.

Captain Larsen said he was told the document had been aboard the plane at take-off and was later missing. He said the Federal Bureau of Investigation started a search for the document and an investigation of its disappearance.

An official of the O.S.I. at the airport, Thomas L. Hackett, admitted his organisation was looking for “something important” but said it was not top secret.

An airline spokesman said the F.B.I. had made inquiries at Eastern’s Boston office.

Young Recruits

The turbo-prop Electra — second of its kind to crash in less than three weeks — carried 66 passengers and a crew of five.

Among the passengers were 15 youthful recruits of the United States marine corps, on their way to training camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. Two of them are among the known dead and at least three others were injured.

Relatives of some of the young marines, who had seen them off moments earlier, saw the accident from the observation deck of Logan International Airport.

The plane, bound for Philadelphia, came down in muddy water about 200 yards offshore. It was low tide at the time and some rescuers slogged through seas of mud, while others hurried out in boats.

The airliner broke into two pieces.

After darkness fell, flashlights pierced the gloom as helicopters hovered at low altitudes and shone searchlights down on the wreckage.

Many of the dead were found by skin divers strapped in their seats in the oily waters of the harbor.

Fifth Crash

The Boston crash was the fifth for an Electra, a big turbo-prop which has been in service for less than two years.

Three of the four previous crashes took a total of 162 lives, and the Federal Aviation Agency ordered airlines using Electras to fly them at reduced speed while the builder undertook a modification programme.

The most recent accident involving an Electra was on September 14. All 76 aboard the craft lived to tell abouat it. The plane struck a dike on a landing approach at New York’s La Guardia airport, flipped over on its back and burned.

The head of the Federal Aviation Agency (Mr. E. Quesada) said late last night:–”We do not know what casued the Boston crash.

“There doesn’t seem to be any relation between this crash and any structural problems with the aeroplane,” he said.

The F.A.A. did not plan to ground the aircraft, he said. –A.A.P.

Eastern Airlines Electra Crashes In Harbor, Killing 61 And Injuring 11

Boston, Oct 5 (AP)– An Eastern Airlines four-engine Electra transport plunged into Boston harbor on takeoff Tuesday, killing 61 of the 72 aboard. All of the 11 known survivors were injured seriously.

A MYSTERIOUS “secret document” figured in the crash. State Police Capt Carl Larsen, in charge of rescue operations, said a member of the Air Force Office of Special Investigation told him it was aboard at takeoff but later missing. Larsen said the FBI started a search.

The crash, one of a series of mishaps involving the turboprop Electra and the second in less than three weeks, brought urgent demands for investigation.

AS THE CIVIL Aeronautics Board ordered seven investigators to the scene, Rep Steven B. Derounian, R-NY, called for a congressional inquiry. Rep Vance Hartke, D-Ind, calling for corrective action by the Federal Aviation Agency, said “structural deficiencies found in this airplane have not been corrected.”

But Gen. E. R. Quesada, federal aviation administrator, said sketchy information available did not show any relation between Tuesday’s crash and previous accidents involving Electras.

THE PLANE TOOK off from Logan International Airport at 5:45 pm bound for Philadelphia, Charlotte, NC, Greenville, SC, and Atlanta. It came down about 200 yards offshore.

Among the 67 passengers were 15 Marine Corps recruits en route to Parris Island, SC. Ten of them were among the known dead. At least three others were injured.

“THE THING WAS split wide open,” said Lt Cmdr Everett Cook, USNR, who saw the plane after it nosed into the water off the Winthrop Yacht Club.

“WHen I got there part of the plane was still afloat,” said Cmdr Donald Regan, US NR, one of the first to reach the scene. “A good many of the passengers were strapped to their seats adn could not get out. The seats were floating. I noticed that their weight was pulling them over so that their heads were in the water.

“THEY WERE ALL a mess–blood, broken legs, split skulls and everything else.”

Eastern Airlines at Miami at first said the Pilot, Capt C. W. Fitts, and copilot M. J. Calloway, survived. But later the airline could not confirm this and they could not be located in any hospital.

FORMER US Navy Frogman James J. Cahill of Danvers led the estimated 200 skindivers in the heroic recue operations. They had the grim task of pulling body after body from the wreckage.

The divers found the wheels of the airliner in the murky mud some 50 feet from the spot where the red and white tail section of the huge craft was pulled above water by Navy Tug 542.

COAST GUARD craft worked through the night bringing in bodies.

One Coast Guard craft commanded by Boatswain’s Mate Richard Hagert brought in 10 bodies. Most of these victims were found strapped to their seats, safety belts still intact.

Two victims were found side by side in their seats. The pained expression on their faces told of their vain struggle to free themselves.

THE BODY OF Flight Engineer Malcolm M. Hall of Memphis, Tenn, was recovered.

Two stewardesses survived, identified by the airline as Joan Berry, 22, of Prentice, Miss, and Pactricia Davies of Jacksonville, Fla.

“IT HAPPENED so fast there was no time to think. We were up in the air–then suddenly we hit the water. I remember calling for the pilot and copilot. There was no answer,” Miss Berry said.

“I opened the rear door and pushed myself out. The pain from my broken leg was so severe I passed out.”

HUNDREDS JOINED in the rescue efforts–police, firemen, owners of small boats, skin divers, pilots of Coast Guard helicopters and boats and Navy ships. Men waded knee deep through oil-smeared muck of the mud flats to bring back bodies.

Late at night, in the light of the full moon, skin divers tried repeatedly to attach lines to the wreckage in 20 feet of water.

Cockpit Transcripts Released

CHARLOTTE (UPI) — The last words of the pilot of the ill-fated Eastern Airlines jetliner that crashed here Sept. 11 in which 72 persons died were: “All we’ve got to do is find the airport.”

Capt. James Reeves, who was killed in the crash, uttered the prophetic words just three seconds before the DC-9 crashed into the ground 3.3 miles short of Douglas Airport.

Voice recordings of the plane’s two officers were released Tuesday and indicated that neither Reeves or James M. Daniels, the co-pilot who was flying the plane at the time, seemed aware of the plane’s danger.

The recordings showed the first reaction of the two officers — apparently profane remarks dubbed “nonpertinent words” in the transcript — came just a half second before the first sound of impact.

Conversation between Reeves and Daniels about a minute and a half before the crash indicated they were not sure of their precise location as they flew near Carowinds, the sprawling amusement park about three miles from the crash site.

Reeves: “Carowinds? I don’t think it is… We’re too far, too far in. Carowinds is in back of us.”

Daniels: “I believe it is (Carowinds).”

Reeves: “By (word deleted), that looks like it. You know it’s Carowinds.”

Daniels: “It’s supposed to be real nice.”

The officers chatted a few more seconds about Carowinds before Reeves commented, “There’s, ah, Ross, now we can go on down.” Ross means an imaginary navigational point 5.5 miles from the airport.

Reeves then asked Daniels to set the plane’s flaps at “fifty degrees.”

Daniels acknowledged the fifty degree setting three seconds later.”

The only other sounds are mechanical clickings before Reeves said, six seconds before impact, “Yeh, we’re all ready.”

Three seconds later he uttered: “All we got to do is find the airport.”

Three seconds after that, the first sounds of impact were recorded.

‘See and Be Seen’ Rule Stymies Study of Collisions

By JAMES R. POLK
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Government efforts to end deadly midair collisions have become caught in a fight between two safety agencies over an old flying rule left over from the Lindbergh days–the rule of “see and be seen.”

In a jet age with airliners flying 600 miles an hour, a safety board is questioning whether a pilot’s eye is fast enough to resly upon to see and avoid collisions.

The latest disaster that killed 49 in a crash between an Air West jet and a Marine Corps fighter plane Sunday near Los Angeles met all the classic conditions:

Clear, sunny skies. A crowded airliner flying under radar rules, only a few minutes away from its airport. Another plane zipping along by visual rules–what the radar people call “unknown traffic.” Failure to spot it soon enough. Death.

The tragedy added to an already grim list of numbers:

– Midair collisions have resulted in nearly two-thirds of all deaths, 240 out of 396, in U.S. jetliner crashes over the past four years.

– Almost once a day, somewhere in the nation, another jetliner has a close brush with a private plane in what the government labels a “near-miss.” The study containing these statistics cited Los Angeles as the most dangerous area, New York second.

– In the next 10 years, another government study predicts, 528 persons will die in airline disasters in midair if today’s odds aren’t reduced.

The Los Angeles crash ended nearly two years for the nation’s major airlines without a fatality on a regular jet flight, a safety stretch without preceden [sic] in modern aviation history.

It was the last disaster, an 83-death collision between an Allegheny jet and a student pilot’s plane near Indianapolis, Ind., in the fall of 1969, that touched off both an intense study of midair crashes and the safety quarrel.

The dispute involves the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an independent agency which investigates accidents, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the agency that writes the safety rules and controls the nation’s air traffic.

The NTSB blamed the Indianapolis disaster on what it called gaps in the FAA’s control of air traffic. It said the old “see and be seen” rule, in the NTSB’s words, “totally unacceptable” today in airport areas where jetliners are mixed with private planes flying visually.

The FAA issued a 1-page reply saying the pilots of the two planes still had the responsibility to see and avoid each other.

But the NTSB repeated its arguments in March against mixing the two types of air traffic near airports in a bulky study of the midair collisions that contained the ominous 10-year death prediction.

The strained gulf between the NTSB and the FAA has been growing recently. The NTSB has been publicly critical of the FAA in a number of its reports.

Privately, FAA officials from the agency’s top man on down, have been heard to accuse the NTSB of both headline-grabbing and power-grabbing.

The safety board is sending its team of experts to Los Angeles to probe the latest crash. As usual, the FAA is sending its own men along as observers.

The collision over the stark San Gabriel Mountains came 10 minutes after the Air West DC9 jet had taken off from Los Angeles for Salt Lake City. As all jetliners do, it was flying a specified route under radar control even though skies were clear.

The FAA said the Marine F4 Phantom jet was flying by visual rules, which mean it had not filed a route plan with radar air-traffic controllers. The FAA said radar watchers saw the two planes on their screens just before the crash–apparently not in time to warn them.

The crash fit what the NTSB has described as the usual pattern — clear weather with good visibility, one plane either climbing or landing, a second plane using visual rules while within range of a major airport.

Four of the last eight jetliner disasters have happened largely this way. The Indianapolis jet was landing. A Piedmont jet was taking off in North Carolina when a collision killed 82 in 1967. Another jet was landing in Ohio when a midair crash took 26 lives the same year.

Flight Rules That Led to Crash Criticized By Federal Investigator

DUARTE, Calif. (UPI) — Criticism of “see and be seen” flying rules was voiced Tuesday in the wake of a weekend inflight collision between two planes that killed 50 persons.

A supersonic Marine F4 jet, flying through a crowded commercial air corridor under visual flight rules, collided Sunday at 12,000 feet with an Air West DC9 being controlled from a ground radar center.

Oscar M. Laurel, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board which was investigating the cause of the crash, said that now “may be a good time to take another look” at rules permitting visual flight operations near crowded metropolitan areas.

The Air West plane had taken off from Los Angeles International Airport 10 minutes before the collision. Both planes plummeted to earth in a rugged mountain area 40 miles from Los Angeles.

The wreckage was strewn over so wide a region that by Tuesday only slightly more than half the bodies had been located by helicopter crews.

In Washington, the National Association of Government Employes [sic], which represents some air route traffic controllers, urged the government to finance additional equipment to provide radar separation between planes on instrument flights and those flying under visual rules.

Tighten Rules On Military Plane Flights

By JOHN STOWELL
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Military pilots, involved in one of every four near-misses with other planes, will fly under civilian direction more often in the wake of a 50-death crash of a Marine jet and an airliner.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday the armed services agreed to its request to cut down on the number of fixed-wing military aircraft operating under the rule of “see and be seen.”

In the future, the FAA said, all military administrative and cross-country flights and some flights to and from military bases will be operated under instrument flight rules whenever possible.

That would put them under direction of FAA air-traffic controllers based at civilian airport towers, and require military pilots to file flight plans.

A Marine F4 Phantom jet was flying by visual rules when it collided June 6 with an Air West DC9 over the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles. Killed were 44 passengers and five crew members aboard the DC9 and the F4 pilot.

The only survivor of that crash, a radar officer aboard the military plane, said he saw the approaching jetliner and shouted a warning to his pilot just seconds before the crash. The radar officer parachuted to safety.

The FAA said its radar watchers had been tracking the DC9 after takeoff from Los Angels [sic] for Salt Lake City, but did not see on their screens the military jet en route from Nevada to Santa Ana, Calif., on a low-level navigational training flight.

Military Craft Due to Fly by Civilian Rules

WASHINGTON (AP) — Military pilots, involved in one of every four near-misses with other planes, will fly under civilian direction more often in the wake of a 50-death crash of a Marine jet and an airliner.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday the armed forces agreed to its request to cut down on the number of fixed-wing military aircraft operating under the rule of “see and be seen.”

In the future, the FAA said, all military administrative and cross-country flights and some flights to and from military bases will be operated under instrument flight rules whenever possible.

That would put them under direction of FAA air-traffic controllers based at civilian airport towers, and require military pilots to file flight plans.

A Marine F4 Phantom jet was flying by visual rules when it collided June 6 with an Air West DC9 over the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles. Killed were 44 passengers and five crew members aboard the DC9 and the F4 pilot.

The only survivor of that crash, a radar officer aboard the military plane, said he saw the approaching jetliner and shouted a warning to his pilot just seconds before the crash. The radar officer parachuted to safety.

The FAA said its radar watchers had been tracking the DC9 after takeoff from Los Angels [sic] for Salt Lake City but did not see on their screens the military jet en route from Nevada to Santa Ana, Calif., on a low-level navigational training flight.

While most commercial airliners operate on instruments at all times, current federal regulations allow other pilots the option of following visual flight rules when the sky is clear.

All planes must follow instrument flight rules, however, when flying between 24,000- and 60,000-feet altitude over most of the United States and when flying above 18,000 feet in the crowded skyways of the Northeast and a strip along the U.S.-Canadian border.

The FAA, in a 1968 study, found that military pilots reported one-fourth of the 2,230 near-miss aircraft encounters that year. It said aircraft involved in the near-miss reports carried more than 100,000 persons, and concluded there were probably four such instances for each one reported voluntarily.