User:Scott Wilson/Sandbox/Accidents and incidents on commercial aircraft mockup/1900-1949

1931
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 * March 31 - Transcontinental & Western Air flight 599 crashes near Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, killing all eight aboard, including Notre Dame University football coach Knute Rockne.

1933

 * October 10 – A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by a bomb over Chesterton, Indiana in the first proven case of air sabotage on a commercial aircraft; all seven on board are killed.

1937

 * May 6 – A Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei flight, the Zeppelin Hindenburg, LZ-129, bursts into flames and crashes while attempting a landing at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst in New Jersey; of the 97 people on board, 35 are killed, and one person on the ground.
 * November 16 – A Sabena Junkers Ju 52 crashes near Ostende, Belgium killing all 11 on board, including the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Hesse.

1938

 * August 24 - Omori air disaster: Japanese Flying School Hanriot HD-1 and Japan Airlines Transportation Universal collide over Omori,Tokyo killing the five crew, and 40 people on the ground.
 * January 10 - Northwest Airlines Flight 2 crashes near Bozeman, Montana, killing all ten on board; the machine with which the manufacturer measured aircraft component vibration is found to be inaccurate, causing the aircraft to be more prone to flutter than thought.

1939

 * January 13 - Northwest Airlines Flight 1 crashes on takeoff from Miles City, Montana, killing all four on board. The aircraft's cross-feed fuel valve leaked fuel into the cockpit and an intense fire broke out.

1940

 * June 14 - An Aero Junkers Ju52-3/mge flying from Tallinn, Estonia to Helsinki, Finland was shot down by two Soviet bombers over the Gulf of Finland. At the time, Finland was not at war with any country.

1941

 * February 26 - Eastern Air Lines Flight 21, a Douglas DC-3, crashes while descending to land at Atlanta, Georgia killing 16 of 25 aboard; World War I hero and Eastern Air Lines president Eddie Rickenbacker is among the survivors.

1943

 * June 01 - BOAC Flight 777, a Douglas DC-3, is shot down by German fighter aircraft over the Bay of Biscay, killing 17 passengers and crew, including actor Leslie Howard. It has been speculated that the flight was attacked because German intelligence believed that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was on the flight.

1945

 * July 12 – An Eastern Air Lines flight en route from Boston, Massachusetts to Miami with stops in Washington, DC and Columbia, SC collides with a US Army B-25 Mitchell bomber about 3,000 feet above Syracuse, SC; the commercial pilot lands in a cornfield nearby, but one passenger, an infant, is killed; the bomber explodes, killing two, one parachutes safely.

1946

 * October 3 – An American Overseas Airlines four-engine Douglas C-54 'Flagship New England' Berlin-bound crashed into a mountainside outside Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. The flight was carrying many wives and children of US Army personnel serving in post-war Germany.  All 39 people on board died. At the time, it was the worst accident of its kind among US civilian airlines.
 * December 25 – At least three planes crashed independently amidst heavy fog in Shanghai, China.

1947

 * January 26, A KLM Douglas Dakota crashed after takeoff from Copenhagen Airport (called Kastrup Airport at the time), killing all 22 on board, including Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden.
 * August 2 – Lancastrian Star Dust crashes in Chile.
 * October 24 - United Airlines Flight 608 DC-6 (NC37510) en route to Chicago from Los Angeles caught fire and crashed while attempting an emergency landing at Bryce Canyon, Utah airport.

1948

 * January 30 - British South American Airways Avro Tudor IV "Star Tiger" G-AHNP en route from the Azores to Bermuda disappeared without trace. At last contact the plane was estimated to be just under two hours away from landing.
 * March 12 - Northwest Airlines Flight 4422 crashed into Mount Sanford, Alaska Territory killing 30.
 * June 17 - United Airlines Flight 624 DC-6 NC37506 crashed near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania.
 * July 17 - Catalina seaplane "Miss Macao" (VR-HDT), operated by a Cathay Pacific subsidiary, with 23 passengers and three crew on board flying from Macau to Hong Kong was hijacked mid-way over the Pearl River Delta by a group of four hijackers attempting to rob the passengers on board. The pilot was attacked and lost control during the ensuing struggle in the cockpit. The subsequent crash killed all on board except one passenger, who was later identified to be the lead hijacker. This is the first known case of airliner hijack.
 * October 2, Bukken Bruse disaster. Flying boat crashes upon landing in Trondheim. Bertrand Russell is among the survivors.
 * October 20 – KLM Constellation air disaster (Prestwick, Scotland)

1949

 * May 4 - Superga air disaster. A plane carrying the Torino F.C. football team (see also Grande Torino) crashes into the Superga hills near Turin, killing all 31 on board, including 18 players.
 * May 7 - A Philippine Air Lines was destroyed by a time bomb, killing all 13 aboard.
 * September 9 – Canadian Pacific Airlines DC-3 exploded in mid-flight en route from Quebec City to Baie-Comeau, Quebec as the result of an on board bomb, killing all 23 on board. See Albert Guay affair.
 * October 27 – Air France Lockheed Constellation crashed in the Azores, 48 died including French boxing star Marcel Cerdan and young concert violinist Ginette Neveu.
 * November 1 – Eastern Airlines Flight 537, a Douglas DC-4, collided with a P-38 fighter on its final approach to National Airport. All 55 people on board the DC-4 died. Among the dead were Congressman George J. Bates, New Yorker cartoonist Helen Hokinson, and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy.
 * November 29 - American Airlines Flight 157, a Douglas DC-6 enroute from New York City to Mexico City, veers off the runway and strikes buildings after an engine failure on final approach to Dallas Love Field. 26 passengers and 2 crew members are killed.