Commercial Plane Crashes from 1922 – 1949
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1922
April 7: A Daimler Hire Ltd.-operated de Havilland DH.18A, G-EAWO, collides with a Compagnie des Grands Express Aériens (CGEA)-operated Farman F.60 Goliath, F-GEAD, over the Thieulloy-St. Antoine road near Picardie, France. All seven peoplee on both aircraft were killed. The pilots of both aircraft were using the road as a route marker in bad weather with poor visibility; this is the first mid-air collision of airliners.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1930
October 5: The British airship R101 crashes north of Paris killing 48 people.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1931
March 21: Australian National Airways Southern Cloud, an Avro 618 Ten crashes in the Snowy Mountains during a flight from Sydney to Melbourne, killing all eight on board. This is Australia’s first significant airline disaster. The crash site remained undiscovered for 27 years and severe weather at the time of the flight was reported as the likely cause of the accident.
March 31: Transcontinental & Western Air Flight 599 crashes near Bazaar, Kansas, killing all eight aboard. University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne was killed on this flight.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1933
March 28: An Imperial Airways Armstrong Whitworth Argosy II crashes near Dixmude, Belgium in the first suspected case of air sabotage. The entire manifest of 15 passengers die in this crash.
October 10: A United Air Lines Boeing 247 is destroyed by a bomb over Chesterton, Indiana in the first proven case of air sabotage on a commercial aircraft. There were no survivors of this plane crash.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1935
October 7 : United Airlines Trip 4 crashes near Silver Crown, Wyoming due to pilot error; all 12 on board die.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1936
December 9: A KLM flight crashes on takeoff from Croydon Airport. 15 of 17 passengers on board die.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1937
January 12: Western Air Express Flight 7 crashes into a mountain near Newhall, California. Five of the 13 people aboard die, including famed adventurer, author and filmmaker, Martin Johnson.
May 6: A Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei flight, the Zeppelin Hindenburg, 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; one person on the ground also dies.
November 16: A Sabena Junkers Ju 52 crashes near Ostend, Belgium, killing all 11 on board, including the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Cecilie of Hesse, who was eight months pregnant.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1938
January 10: Northwest Airlines Flight 2, crashes near Bozeman, Montana, killing all ten on board. The machine with which the manufacturer-measured component vibration is found to be inaccurate, causing the aircraft to be more prone to flutter than previously thought.
January 11: A Pan American World Airways Sikorsky S-42 flying boat explodes over Pago Pago, American Samoa; all 14 on board die.
March 1: A Transcontinental & Western Air Douglas DC-2 disappears on a flight from San Francisco, California to Winslow, Arizona. The aircraft is found three months later on a mountain in Yosemite National Park with all 9 passengers dead.
October 25: An Australian National Airways Douglas DC-2 crashes in heavy fog into Mount Dandenong in Victoria, Australia, killing all 18 people on board.
November 4: A Jersey Airways-operated De Havilland D.H.86 crashes on takeoff from Jersey Airport due to pilot error. All 13 passengers and crew die as well as one person on the ground.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1939
January 13: Northwest Airlines Flight 1, crashes on takeoff from Miles City, Montana, killing all four on board.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1940
June 14: In the Kaleva shootdown, an Aero Junkers Ju 52/3mge flying from Tallinn, Estonia to Helsinki, Finland is shot down by two Soviet bombers over the Gulf of Finland during peacetime; all nine aboard die.
August 31: Pennsylvania Central Airlines Trip 19 crashes at Lovettsville, Virginia killing all 25 aboard in the worst US airplane accident to that date, beginning the era of formal investigations under the Civil Aeronautics Board.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1941
February 26: Eastern Air Lines Flight 21, a Douglas DC-3, crashes while descending to land at Atlanta, Georgia, killing 8 of 16 aboard. World War I hero and Eastern Air Lines president Eddie Rickenbacker is among the survivors.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1942
January 16 – Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 3, a Douglas DC-3 returning to California, crashes into Mount Potosi 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas. All 22 aboard die, including actress Carole Lombard and her mother.
January 30: A Qantas Short Empire is shot down by seven Japanese fighters and crashes 13 miles from East Timor; 13 of 18 on board die.
March 3: A KNILM Douglas DC-3 is shot down by three Japanese fighters and crashes 50 miles north of Broome, Western Australia, killing 4 of 12 on board.
October 23: American Airlines Flight 28 crashes near Palm Springs, California, after being struck by a U.S. Army Air Corps Lockheed B-34 bomber. All 12 aboard the airliner die, while the bomber lands safely with minor damage.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1943
January 2: Pan Am Flight 1104, a Martin M-130 nicknamed the Philippine Clipper, crashes into a mountain near Boonville, California, killing all 19 passengers and crew, including Rear-Admiral Robert H. English, commander of the U.S. Pacific Submarine Fleet.
June 1: BOAC Flight 777, a Douglas DC-3, is shot down by Luftwaffe fighter aircraft over the Bay of Biscay, killing 17 passengers and crew, including actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation that the flight was attacked because German intelligence believed that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was aboard.
July 28: American Airlines Flight 63 loses control due to severe turbulence and violent downdrafts and crashes near Trammel, Kentucky, killing twenty out of twenty-two people on board.
October 15: American Airlines Flight 63, a DC-3, crashes near Centerville, Tennessee, killing all eight passengers and three crew members, after ice formed on its wings and propeller.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1944
February 10: American Airlines Flight 2 crashes into the Mississippi River for reasons unknown, killing all 24 occupants (21 passengers and 3 crew members).
June 20: Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 277, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster, crashes into Fort Mountain in severe weather, killing all 7 passengers and crew on board.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1945
June 13: A Consolidated B-24 Liberator crashes at Fairy Lochs, Scotland, killing all fifteen crew members and passengers on board. It was heading home to the United States after the end ofWorld War II.
July 12: A Douglas A-26 Invader collides with a Douglas DC-3 (Eastern Air Lines Flight 45) over Florence, South Carolina. 1 of the 24 on the DC-3 and 1 of the 2 on the A-26 die.
October 5: National Airlines Flight 16, a Lockheed L-18 Lodestar, overshoots the runway at Lakeland, Florida, killing 2 people.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1946
January 6: Pennsylvania Central Airlines Flight 105 crashes in Birmingham, Alabama killing 3 of the 4 crew members. The other 16 survive.
July 11: Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 513crashes near Reading, Pennsylvania, after a fire in the baggage compartment. Of the 6 crew on board, only one survives.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1947
May 29: United Airlines Flight 521, a Douglas DC-4, crashes on takeoff from LaGuardia Airport due to pilot error; 42 of 48 on board die.
August 12: A British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian named Star Dust disappears over the Andes after transmitting an enigmatic coded message (“STENDEC”). The fate of the plane remained a mystery until the crash site was located in 2000.
August 28: A flying boat of type Short Sandringham named “Kvitbjørn” crashes into a mountain near Lødingen in Norway; all 35 on board (28 passengers and 7 crew) die in the crash.
October 24: United Airlines Flight 608 crashes near Bryce Canyon Airport, Utah, when fire caused by a design flaw destroys the aircraft. All 52 on board die in the first hull loss of the DC-6.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1948
January 28: A DC-3 flight chartered by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service crashes in the hills west of Coalinga, California, killing 32. The crash becomes the impetus of the Woody Guthrie song “Deportee.”
January 30: A British South American Airways Avro Tudor IV disappears without a trace en route from the Azores to Bermuda with 31 on board. The loss of the aircraft along with that of BSAA Avro Tudor Star Ariel in 1949 remain unsolved to this day, with the resulting speculation helping to develop the Bermuda Triangle legend.
March 12: Northwest Airlines Flight 4422, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster, crashes into Mount Sanford in the Alaska Territory, killing 30; wreckage was not located until 1999.
April 5: In the 1948 Gatow air disaster, a British European Airways (BEA) Vickers VC.1 Viking crashes near RAF Gatow, Berlin after a collision with a Soviet Air Force Yakovlev Yak-3 fighter; all 14 people on board the Viking die, as well as the Soviet pilot.
April 21: British European Airways Flight S200P, a Vickers VC.1 Viking, crashes into Irish Law Mountain in Scotland due to pilot error. Fortunately, all on board survive.
June 17: United Airlines Flight 624, a DC-6, crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania after errors in attempting to extinguish what was believed to have been an on-board fire.
July 4: In the Northwood mid-air collision, a Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS)-operated Douglas DC-6 collides with an RAF Avro York near Northwood, London; all 39 passengers and crew die in Britain’s worst mid-air collision.
July 17: Miss Macao, a Catalina seaplane operated by a Cathay Pacific subsidiary, over the Pearl River delta from Macau to Hong Kong, is hijacked with 23 passengers and three crew on board by a group attempting to rob the passengers. Following a struggle in the cockpit, a crash kills all on board except one passenger, later identified as the lead hijacker. This is the earliest known airliner hijacking on record.
August 29: Northwest Airlines Flight 421, a Martin 2-0-2, crashes near Winona, Minnesota, killing all 37 on board.
October 2: In the Bukken Bruse disaster, a Det Norske Luftfartsselskap (DNL) Short Sandringham flying boat crashes upon landing in Trondheim, Norway; 19 are killed; Bertrand Russell is among the 24 survivors.
October 20 – In the 1948 KLM Constellation air disaster, a Lockheed Constellation named Nijmegen crashes near Prestwick, Scotland, killing 40.
December 28: An Airborne Transport Douglas DC-3, registered NC16002, disappears without a trace off the coast of Florida with 32 on board; the disappearance is attributed to the Bermuda Triangle.
Commercial Plane Crashes in 1949
February 19: A British European Airways Douglas Dakota collides with a RAF Avro Anson over Exhall, Warwickshire, killing all 14 on board both aircraft.
May 4: In the Superga air disaster, an Italian Airlines Fiat G.212 CP carrying the Torino football team crashes into the Superga hills near Turin, killing all 31 on board, including 18 players.
August 19: A British European Airways flight crashes into a hillside near Oldham, United Kingdom. Of the 32 on board, only 8 survive.
September 9: A Canadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-3 explodes in flight en route from Quebec City to Baie-Comeau, Quebec as the result of sabotage known as the Albert Guay Affair, killing all 23 on board.
November 1: Eastern Air Lines Flight 537, a Douglas DC-4, on approach to Washington National Airport, suffers a mid-air collision with a Lockheed P-38. All 55 people on board the DC-4 died, including Congressman George J. Bates, New Yorker cartoonist Helen E. Hokinson, and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy; the pilot and sole occupant of the P-38 is seriously injured.
November 20: In the Hurum air disaster, an Aero Holland Douglas DC-3 crashes near Hurum, Norway, killing 34 of the 35 on board, including 25 Jewish children.
November 29: American Airlines Flight 157, a Douglas DC-6 en route from New York City to Mexico City, veers off the runway and strikes buildings after the flight crew loses control of the aircraft during its final approach to Dallas Love Field; 26 passengers and two flight attendants die. The pilot and sole occupant of the P-38 is seriously injured, but alive.
Annalise Kaylor is a freelance writer, editor, and consultant specializing in search engine optimized content for the web. As a writer, her work has appeared across the United States in print ads for Whirlpool, Maytag, Home Depot, and Lowe's, among others. As a consultant, she has worked primarily in the education sector, helping universities increase their web visibility and construct and implement social media strategy. Annalise is an avid reader, knitter, organic gardener and baker, as well as the author of the popular baking blog, Knead To Be Loaved. Annalise enjoys fly fishing, camping, and hiking.
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