Talk:United Air Lines Flight 23

Untitled
I put a verify tag on this article.

The statement about the presence of nitroglycerine on an airplane destroyed in midflight in 1933 is a bit of a stretch (how was that determined?) and the comment about a proven act of sabotage (how?) is very dubious.

The single source cited gives us nothing more than the article does and its author doesn't cite sources in any reproducible way. I can't find any other online source for the incident that doesn't depend on this article.

If we've got something else to cite, I'd love to keep the article; otherwise I think it's a candidate for deletion.

Bpmullins 04:05, 17 September 2006 (UTC)


 * That'll teach me to be so suspicious. The Times articles cited support the story. I'm still a bit suspicious of the speed with which the Bureau reached some of its conclusions, but I think it's enough to go with for now. Bpmullins 18:48, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

FBI documents regarding the investigation
The FBI released 324 pages of documents pertaining to their investigation in the FBI Vault located here

https://vault.fbi.gov/1993-crash-of-united-airlines-trip-23-boeing-247-nc13304/1933%20Crash%20of%20United%20Airlines%20Trip%2023%20Boeing%20247%20NC13304%20Part%2001%20of%2001/view

I have not had the time to review, but I'm adding it here for future Wikipedians. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.16.128.202 (talk) 22:19, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

Page moves without discussion
Since I assessed this article in October 2021, it has been moved from 1933 United Airlines Boeing 247 mid-air explosion to United Airlines Trip 23, with the explanation "per baaa-acro", which I assume is meant to be a reference to CRASH OF A BOEING 247D IN CHESTERTON: 7 KILLED published on the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives (B3A) website. Then, on 2 June 2022, the page was moved to United Air Lines Trip 23 with the explanation that "Sources mention the operator as "United Air Lines" not United Airlines". While I tend to agree with the first move, because it is consistent with the air accident report released by the FBI, I do not agree with the second move that asserts that the operator was "United Air Lines" and not "United Airlines". The above cited website says the operator was "United Airlines" as does the FBI crash report title. It would appear that the operator's name included a space between the words Air and Lines in 1933. However, the same entity is now recognized as being called "United Airlines", with the space omitted and the words run together. The criteria for a Wikipedia article title is that it be based on a commonly recognizable name, rather than an official name. The sources dating from 1933 use "United Air Lines" because that was the company's recognizable name in 1933, but current day sources, and the Wikipedia article, use "United Airlines" because it is the currently recognizable name. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 03:03, 6 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I have moved the page back to its previous name on the grounds of that name being the more recognizable. If anyone wants to move the page again, please discuss this first, per Requested moves. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 03:18, 6 June 2022 (UTC)
 * A discussion about the best commonly recognizable name to use in relation to this article is that the time period also needs to be considered when choosing an article title. So it is common name prevailing at the time that is more applicable. The discussion about the title that I requested has taken place elsewhere and is documented there. See next section. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 01:16, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:1955 MacArthur Airport United Airlines crash which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 16:20, 8 June 2022 (UTC)
 * The outcome of the discussion was that: "... Both the move proposer and the reverter have agreed to move pre-1974 incidents from "Airlines" to "Air Lines" to avoid anachronisms." - Cameron Dewe (talk) 01:04, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

Sabotage or accident?
In Docudrama Series "A Crime to Remember" S1E4 titled "Time Bomb" they discuss the 1955 Crash of United Airlines Flight 629 at Longmont, Colorado. Briefly one cast member refers to a United crash in the 1930's stating, "There had been an incident in the 1930's where a united plane exploded because a sharp shooter who was traveling liked to make his own ammunition and he used nitroglycerin", indicating an accidental explosion. Clearly, he was referring to United Trip 23. I'm questioning that the Wikipedia 'summary' states "Deliberate on-board explosion" while the "Investigation" section defines this incident as "unsolved" and yet the claim is made that, "It is notable for being the first proven act of air sabotage in the history of commercial aviation". I'm interested in knowing what the definition of a" timing device" was in the 1930's and if definitive proof of one exist. If packaged too tightly to allow expansion with altitude, that alone could have caused the nitrogen to ignite. Any thoughts or other information is appreciated. Didarden (talk) 00:04, 26 September 2023 (UTC)