American Airlines Flight 1 (1962)

American Airlines Flight 1
Accident
An American Airlines Boeing 707-123B, similar to the one involved
Date	March 1, 1962
Summary	Improper maintenance, manufacturing defect leading to mechanical failure
Site	Jamaica Bay, New York, U.S. 40°37′4″N 73°50′13″W / 40.61778°N 73.83694°W / 40.61778; -73.83694
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Boeing 707-123B Astrojet
Aircraft name	District of Columbia
Operator	American Airlines
IATA flight No.	AA1
ICAO flight No.	AAL1
Call sign	AMERICAN 1
Registration	N7506A
Flight origin	New York International Airport
Destination	Los Angeles International Airport
Occupants	95
Passengers	87
Crew	8
Fatalities	95
Survivors	0

American Airlines Flight 1 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from New York International (Idlewild) Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York City to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. During the March 1, 1962, operation of the flight, the Boeing 707 executing it rolled over and crashed into Jamaica Bay in New York City two minutes after taking off, killing all 87 passengers and eight crew members aboard. A Civil Aeronautics Board investigation determined that a manufacturing defect in the autopilot system led to an uncommanded rudder control system input, causing the accident. A number of notable people died in the crash. It was the fifth fatal Boeing 707 accident, and at the time, the deadliest.^[1] It was third of three fatal crashes during an operation of American Airlines Flight 1. Finally, this was the third fatal crash involving one of American's 707s in the New York area within a three-year period, after Flight 514 and Flight 1502.

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Transcription

Flight and crash

The aircraft was a Boeing 707-123B, registered as N7506A. It was the 12th Boeing 707 constructed and was delivered to American Airlines on February 12, 1959.^[2] At the time of the crash, it had accumulated 8,147 flight hours. Its last periodic inspection had occurred on January 18, 1962, at 7,922 hours.^[3] The flight crew consisted of Captain James Heist (56), First Officer Michael Barna Jr. (35), Second Officer Robert Pecor (32), and Flight Engineer Robert Cain (32).^[3]^: 29–30

The aircraft received instructions to taxi to Runway 31L at 09:54 EST, and clearance to proceed to Los Angeles nonstop under instrument flight rules (IFR) at 10:02. The aircraft became airborne at 10:07. Following American Airlines procedures and departure control instructions, the aircraft initiated a left turn to a heading of 290°.^[3] In the course of the turn, at 1,600 feet (490 m), the aircraft banked too sharply, rolled past 90°, and began an upside-down, nose-first descent in a nearly vertical dive.^[3]

The Boeing 707 crashed into Pumpkin Patch Channel, Jamaica Bay, at 10:08:49, while angled at 78° and on a magnetic heading of 300°.^[3] Passengers aboard a Mohawk Airlines plane bound for Albany that took off immediately after the Boeing watched the plane plunge into the bay.^[4]^[5] The jet exploded upon impact, a tall splash of brackish water and black smoke erupted from the site, and the scattered debris and fuel caught fire.^[4] Long Island residents described hearing explosions that shook the foundations of nearby houses, although no one on the ground is known to have witnessed the airliner hitting the swamp. However, a few men at Naval Air Station New York/Floyd Bennett Field saw the massive column of water rising above the hangars, and one guard—at his post on the Cross Bay Bridge—saw the aircraft roll over.^[5]^[6]

The aircraft crashed into a remote area of marshland on Jamaica Bay used as a wildlife sanctuary.^[5] Upwards of 300 policemen and fire fighters, including 125 detectives attending a narcotics seminar at the police academy, as well as Coast Guard helicopters, were mobilized to the crash site within 30 minutes of the crash for rescue operations, only to find no survivors.^[5]^[6] The three-alarm fire was under control by 10:50, when only wreckage remained.^[6] Low tides aided search personnel in their attempts to recover bodies from the downed aircraft. Only a few bodies remained intact.^[5]

Notable victims

Well-known persons aboard the aircraft when it went down in Jamaica Bay included:^[7]

Admiral Richard Lansing Conolly, USN (retired), president of Long Island University and two-time Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, and his wife Helen
George T. Felbeck, retired president of Union Carbide and former operations manager of Oak Ridge, Tennessee's uranium enrichment plant, traveling the day after he retired.
W. Alton Jones, multimillionaire, former president and chairman of Cities Service Company and close personal friend of Dwight D. Eisenhower: Jones was found to be carrying $55,690 in cash, including a rare $10,000 bill.^[4]
Arnold Kirkeby, millionaire realtor and former head of the Kirkeby chain of luxury hotels
Louise Sara Eastman, mother of Linda McCartney
Julius and Doris (Eisenberg) Stogel, parents of Leonard Stogel
Emelyn Whiton, 1952 Olympic sailing gold medalist (6-m keelboat)

In addition to the loss of life, fifteen of painter Arshile Gorky's paintings and drawings were destroyed in the crash.^[8]

Federal investigation

The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) received notification of the accident at 10:10 a.m. and immediately sent investigators to Jamaica Bay to conduct an investigation. The flight recorder was found on March 9 and sent to Washington, DC, for analysis.^[9] Public hearings were held at the International Hotel in New York on March 20–23, 1962.^[3]

Investigators were unable to recover sufficient body tissue to determine whether the crew had been physically incapacitated at the time of the crash.^[3] Toxicology reports conclusively ruled out toxic gases, alcohol, and drugs as possible causes for the crash.^[3] Milton Helpern, Chief Medical Examiner, decided that having relatives attempt visual identification of the crash victims was inhumane and ordered dental and fingerprint comparisons.^[4] In early July, the CAB announced their investigators believed that a cotter pin and a bolt missing from the rudder mechanism might have caused the aircraft to crash. Though considered to be a "mechanic's oversight", the CAB nevertheless wired all operators of 707s to inform them of the potential danger of the assembly.^[10]

In January 1963, the CAB released its aircraft accident report stating that the "most likely abnormality" to have caused the crash was a short circuit caused by wires in the automatic piloting system that had been damaged in the manufacturing process. It stated that the probable cause of the accident was "...rudder control system malfunction producing yaw, sideslip, and roll leading to a loss of control from which recovery was not effective"^[3] and concluded "that a rudder servo malfunction due to shorted wires is the most likely abnormality to have produced the accident."^[3]

CAB inspectors had inspected units at a Bendix Corporation plant in Teterboro, New Jersey, and discovered workers using tweezers to bind up bundles of wires, thereby damaging them.^[11] The Bendix Corporation issued denials, stating that the units underwent 61 inspections during manufacturing, in addition to inspections during installation and maintenance work, and insisted that had the insulation on the wires been breached at some point, it would have surely been detected and the unit replaced.^[12]

American Airlines continues using the "Flight 1" designator after the accident; AA1 is still used for a daily morning departure from New York-JFK to Los Angeles using an Airbus A321T as of 2022.^[13]

In popular culture

The crash serves as the central plot element in the 2008 Mad Men episode "Flight 1".^{[citation needed]}

References

^ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on November 15, 2009.
^ "REGISTRATION DETAILS FOR N7506A (AMERICAN AIRLINES) 707-123". www.planelogger.com. PlaneLogger.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Civil Aeronautics Board (January 15, 1963). "American Airlines, Inc., Boeing 707-123B N 7506A, Jamaica Bay, Long Island, New York, March 1, 1962". Aircraft Accident Report. Civil Aeronautics Board. doi:10.21949/1500793. Docket No. SA-366. File No. 1-0001. Archived from the original on April 6, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Disasters: Tragedy in Jamaica Bay". Time. March 9, 1962. Archived from the original on March 21, 2009. Retrieved November 22, 2009.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Tides Hampering Hunt for Victims" (PDF). The Spokesman-Review. Spokane, WA. AP. March 2, 1962. p. 1. Retrieved November 22, 2009.^{[permanent dead link]} (plaintext)
^ ^a ^b ^c "95 Are Believed Dead in Crash of Jet Airliner" (PDF). The Free-Lance Star. Fredericksburg, VA. AP. March 1, 1962. pp. 1, 3. Retrieved November 22, 2009.^{[permanent dead link]} (plaintext)
^ "Noted Men Lose Lives In Crash" (PDF). The Spokesman-Review. Spokane, WA. AP. March 2, 1962. p. 1. Retrieved November 22, 2009.^{[permanent dead link]} (plaintext)
^ "Disasters: Tragedy in Jamaica Bay". March 9, 1962. Archived from the original on March 21, 2009 – via www.time.com.
^ "Flight Recorder of Ill-Fated Plane Found" (PDF). Ocala Star-Banner. Ocala, FL. AP. March 9, 1962. p. 7. Retrieved November 22, 2009.^{[permanent dead link]} (plaintext)
^ Mears, Walter R. (June 13, 1962). "Lost Bolt May Have Caused Crash" (PDF). The Free-Lance Star. Fredericksburg, VA. AP. p. 8. Retrieved November 20, 2009.^{[permanent dead link]} (plaintext)
^ "CAB Blames Jet Crash on Short Circuit" (PDF). Eugene Register-Guard. Eugene, OR. AP. January 15, 1963. p. 1. Retrieved November 21, 2009.^{[permanent dead link]} (plaintext)
^ "CAB Blames Tweezers for 95-Death Crash" (PDF). Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh, PA. AP. January 16, 1963. p. 2. Retrieved November 21, 2009.^{[permanent dead link]} (plaintext)
^ "American Airlines 1". FlightAware. Retrieved May 25, 2019.

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Category

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1962

Feb 25

Avensa Fairchild F-27 accident

Mar 1

American Airlines Flight 1

Mar 4

Caledonian Airways Flight 153

Mar 8

Turkish Airlines crash

Mar 16

Flying Tiger Line Flight 739

May 6

Channel Airways Dakota accident

May 12

Godthab Catalina crash

May 22

Continental Airlines Flight 11

Jun 3

Air France Flight 007

Jun 22

Air France Flight 117

Jun 30

Aeroflot Flight 902

Jul 7

Alitalia Flight 771

Jul 19

United Arab Airlines Flight 869

Jul 22

Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 301

Jul 28

Aeroflot Flight 415

Aug 1

Royal Nepal Airlines DC-3 crash

Sep 3

Aeroflot Flight 03

Sep 18

Aeroflot Flight 213

Nov 23

United Air Lines Flight 297

Nov 27

Varig Flight 810

Nov 30

Eastern Air Lines Flight 512

Dec 19

LOT Vickers Viscount accident

1961 ◄ ► 1963

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1960s
1960	National Airlines Flight 2511 Capital Airlines Flight 20 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 Chicago Helicopter Airways Flight 698 World Airways Flight 830 Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 Cal Poly football team New York mid-air collision
1961	Goldsboro B-52 American Airlines Flight 1502 Yuba City B-52 United Air Lines Flight 859 Alaska Airlines Flight 779 TWA Flight 529 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706 Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 Cincinnati Zantop DC-4
1962	American Airlines Flight 1 Continental Airlines Flight 11 Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 301 United Air Lines Flight 297 Eastern Air Lines Flight 512
1963	Elephant Mountain B-52 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 Camden PA-24 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 293 Mohawk Airlines Flight 112 Pan Am Flight 214
1964	Savage Mountain B-52 Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 Paradise Airlines Flight 901A Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 United Air Lines Flight 823 Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114 Flying Tiger Line Flight 282
1965	USAF KC-135 Wichita Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 Pan Am Flight 843 Continental Airlines Flight 12 Allegheny Airlines Flight 604 United Air Lines Flight 389 American Airlines Flight 383 United Air Lines Flight 227 Carmel mid-air (Eastern 853, TWA 42)
1966	NASA T-38 American Flyers Airline Flight 280/D Braniff International Airways Flight 250 West Coast Airlines Flight 956
1967	Lake Central Airlines Flight 527 TWA Flight 553 West Coast Airlines Flight 720 Delta Air Lines Flight 9877 Mohawk Airlines Flight 40 Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 TWA Flight 159 X-15 Flight 3-65-97 TWA Flight 128
1968	Ozark Air Lines Flight 965 Braniff International Airways Flight 352 Los Angeles Airways Flight 841 Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 Northeast Airlines Flight 946 Japan Air Lines Flight 2 Pan Am Flight 281 Wien Consolidated Airlines Flight 55 Allegheny Airlines Flight 736 Pan Am Flight 799 North Central Airlines Flight 458 Ozark Air Lines Flight 982
1969	Allegheny Airlines Flight 737 Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933 United Air Lines Flight 266 Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 Prinair Flight 277 Delta Air Lines Flight 821 TWA Flight 5787 Newton Cessna 172 crash Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 Mohawk Airlines Flight 411
This list is incomplete.

This page was last edited on 28 March 2024, at 04:23

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