1944 – Nov 4, TWA # 8 enters thunderstorm, breaks-up, crashes near Hanford, CA  –all 24

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 3-20-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

 —  24  Aviation Safety Network. Accident description, TWA Flight 8, November 4, 1944.

—  24  CAB, AIR TWA Hanford California November 4, 1944, January 15, 1946.

—  24  Nebraska State Journal, “24 Killed in Plane Crash,” November 5, 1944, p. 1.

—  24  Notable California Aviation Disasters.  “The 1940s.” 

Narrative Information

Aviation Safety Network: “Flight 8 took off at 16:00, one hour behind schedule, and proceeded according to plan to a cruising altitude of 10,000 feet for Burbank on an instrument clearance. It reported over Fresno on schedule cruising at 10,000 feet and estimated Bakersfield at 17:35. Near Hanford, the plane was seen to enter a rapidly forming thunderstorm in cumulus-nimbus clouds. The DC-3 entered an inverted flying attitude, probably due to severe turbulence. The plane than broke up and crashed.”  (ASN, TWA Flight 8, November 4, 1944)

Civil Aeronautics Board. Accident Investigation Report (File No. 3640-44):

“TWA’s Flight 8 of November 4, 1944, failed structurally in the air near Hanford, California, while on regular transcontinental schedule from San Francisco to New York. All 21 passengers and the three crew members were killed….

“A number of persons near Hanford saw the plane enter a rapidly forming thunderstorm and some heard it in the cloud. Shortly thereafter, parts of the plane were seen falling from the base of the overcast which was at about 1500 feet. An ignited flare, broken free from its chute and appearing as a ball of fire, was the first object seen. This was followed by several major and many lesser portions the aircraft. The main portion, consisting of the center section, the pilots compartment, right outer wing panel, the engines and the landing gear, struck the ground in an attitude slightly past vertical and burned on impact….

“Probable Cause: On the basis of all the evidence available the Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the airplane’s structure as a result of severe turbulence. An important contributing cause was the fact that the airplane was undoubtedly in an abnormal attitude of flight, i.e., inverted, at the instant of structural failure. The cause of the airplane becoming inverted has not been determined.” (Civil Aeronautics Board, Accident Investigation Report, TWA Hanford CA, Nov. 4, 1944, Jan. 15, 1946, CAB File No. 3640-44) Twenty of the 21 passengers were military.  (CAB, TWA Hanford CA Nov, Jan 15, 1946)

Notable California Aviation Disasters:

“Date / Time: Saturday, November 4, 1944 / Time: 5:15 p.m.

“Operator / Flight No.: Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA) / Flight 8

“Location: Near Hanford, Calif.

“Details and Probable Cause:  TWA Flight 8, utilizing a twin-engine Douglas DC-3 (NC28310), took off from San Francisco at 4:00 p.m. on the first leg of its flight to New York, carrying a crew of three and 21 passengers, 20 of whom were military personnel.

“The first stop on the flight’s itinerary was Burbank, and as the airliner flew south it subsequently reported over Fresno that it was cruising at 10,000 feet and was estimating the Bakersfield checkpoint at 5:35 p.m.   At 5:12 p.m. the TWA crew acknowledged receiving a company message by radio — the final contact anyone had with the aircraft.

“Minutes later, near the San Joaquin Valley town of Hanford, a number of people on the ground were startled to see a flare, appearing as a ball of fire, fall out of the stormy overcast that was hovering over the valley at around 1,500 feet.   The flare was followed by several major pieces and a number of lesser parts of a commercial airliner, which moments earlier had been observed flying into a rapidly forming thunderstorm.

“The debris crashed to earth over a square-mile area; it was all that remained of TWA Flight 8.   All 24 persons on board perished in the crash.

“Investigators probing the wreckage eventually determined that the DC-3 had penetrated a violent thunderstorm at the moment of the storm cell’s maximum severity and — while flying in an inverted position — had lost its left wing, followed by portions of its tail section.   Upon the failure of the wing the aircraft broke up, plunged to earth and burned upon impact.

“The eerie ball of fire witnessed by those on the ground was one of the plane’s emergency flares that had fallen free from the aircraft during its break-up, became detached from its parachute and, ignited, dropped out of the clouds along with the various portions of the aircraft.

“The plane was outfitted with a flight analyzer, a barographic device that automatically records altitude and radio contacts against flight time, and from this data investigators were able to determine that the aircraft was “undoubtedly” in an “unusual position of flight” at the moment of structural failure; that “in all probability” the DC-3 was inverted (upside-down) at the time of the break-up.

“Investigators attributed this atypical position of flight to that of either turbulence or a temporary loss of control, with the failure of the wing immediately occurring as a result.

“Fatalities: 24 — all 21 passengers and three crew members.”  (Notable California Aviation Disasters.  “The 1940s.”)

Newspaper

Nov 5: “Hundreds of Hanford’s citizens joined sheriff’s officers in the work of locating the mangled bodies, scattered thru a large field when the transport, which one witness said apparently disintegrated in the air, plummeted to earth and burst into flames….

“The crash occurred during a heavy rainstorm and occasional flashes of lightning shot across the sky during the night.  T.W.A. officials…announced that the transport, Flight 8, was enroute to Burbank from San Francisco….J.S. Bartels, regional operations manager at Burbank, reported that the plane was a Douglas DC-3 twin-engined transport, carrying 21 passengers and a crew of three.”  (Nebraska State Journal, “24 Killed in Plane Crash,” November 5, 1944, p. 1)

“Hanford, Calif. (UP). The bodies of 24 persons who died in the flaming wreck of a Trans-continental Western Air Lines transport near Hanford Saturday night were removed to this city’s two small mortuaries as weary, rain-soaked workers completed their grim task in a dark field illuminated only by flashlights and automobile headlights.” (NB State Journal, 5 Nov 1944, p. 1)

Sources

Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database. Transcontinental & Western Air, Flight 8 enters thunderstorm and crashes near Hanford CA, 11-4-1944. Accessed 3-20-2024 at: https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19441104-0

Civil Aeronautics Board. Accident Investigation Report. Transcontinental and Western Air –  Hanford, California, November 4, 1944 (File No. 3640-44).  CAB, 15 Jan 1946, 17 pp. Accessed 3-20-2024 at: dot_33245_DS1.pdf

Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln. “24 Killed in Plane Crash,” November 5, 1944, p. 1.  Accessed at:  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/freepdfviewer.aspx?img=23945418

Notable California Aviation Disasters. “The 1940s.” Sep 25, 2009 update. Accessed 10/17/2009 at:  http://www.jaydeebee1.com/crash40s.html