United Air Lines Flight 736
1958 mid-air collision over Nevada, USA / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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United Air Lines Flight 736 was a scheduled transcontinental passenger service flown daily by United Airlines between Los Angeles and New York City. On April 21, 1958, the airliner assigned to the flight, a Douglas DC-7 with 47 on board, was flying over Clark County, Nevada in clear weather when it was involved in a daytime mid-air collision with a United States Air Force fighter jet crewed by two pilots. Both aircraft fell out of control from 21,000 feet (6,400 m) and crashed into unpopulated desert terrain southwest of Las Vegas, leaving no survivors. The loss of Flight 736, one of a series of 1950s mid-air collisions involving passenger aircraft in American skies, helped usher-in widespread improvements in air traffic control within the United States, and led to a sweeping reorganization of federal government aviation authorities.
Accident | |
---|---|
Date | April 21, 1958; 66 years ago (1958-04-21) 08:30 PST (14:30 UTC) |
Summary | Mid-air collision |
Site | Enterprise, Nevada, United States 35°59′58″N 115°12′17″W (DC7 crash site) |
Total fatalities | 49 |
Total survivors | 0 |
First aircraft | |
The United Air Lines DC-7 involved in the accident | |
Type | Douglas DC-7 |
Operator | United Airlines |
Call sign | United 7-3-6 |
Registration | N6328C |
Flight origin | Los Angeles International Airport, California |
1st stopover | Stapleton International Airport, Denver, Colorado |
2nd stopover | Mid-Continent International Airport, Kansas City, Missouri |
Last stopover | Washington National Airport, Washington, D.C. |
Destination | Idlewild Airport, New York City |
Passengers | 42 |
Crew | 5 |
Fatalities | 47 |
Survivors | 0 |
Second aircraft | |
North American F-100F fighter | |
Type | North American F-100F-5-NA Super Sabre |
Operator | United States Air Force |
Call sign | Sabre 7-5-5 |
Registration | 56-3755 |
Flight origin | Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada |
Destination | Nellis Air Force Base |
Crew | 2 |
Fatalities | 2 |
Survivors | 0 |
Among the DC-7 passengers were a group of military personnel and civilian contractors involved with sensitive Department of Defense weapons systems. Their deaths triggered new rules prohibiting similar groups engaged in critical projects from flying aboard the same aircraft.
The official investigation report cited cockpit visibility limitations and high closure speeds as contributing to the accident. While the report did not assign blame for the collision to either flight crew, it faulted military and civilian aviation authorities for not reducing well-known collision risks that had existed for over a year within the confines of airways, even after numerous complaints from airline crews.
A series of lawsuits were filed following the collision. In one case a judge stated the Air Force pilots did not use "ordinary care" in operation of the fighter jet, and should have yielded the right of way to the DC-7 airliner, despite the investigation assigning no blame to either flight crew for the collision. The judge also criticized the Air Force for not coordinating their training flights with civilian traffic, and for failing to schedule their flights to minimize traffic congestion. In another case, a settlement was reached where the U.S. Government paid United Airlines $1.45 million in compensation.