1959 — Dec 1, Allegheny Air Approach Crash, near Williamsport-Montoursville, PA — 25
— 25 Aircraft Crashes Record Office (Geneva, Switzerland). Pennsylvania.
— 25 AirDisaster.com. Accident Database. Accident Synopsis 12011959.
— 25 CAB. AAR. Allegheny Airlines… Near Williamsport, Pennsylvania, December 1, 1959.
— 25 Titusville Herald, PA. “25 Lose Lives in Crash of Allegheny Airliner.” 12-2-1959, p. 1.
Narrative Information
Civil Aeronautics Board: “At approximately 0947 e.s.t , on December 1, 1959, an Allegheny Airlines Martin 202, N 174A, crashed on Bald Eagle Mountain about 1.3 miles south of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Airport. The crew of 3, one additional crew member, and 21 of the 22 revenue passengers were killed.
“Allegheny Airlines Flight 371, a regularly scheduled flight, departed Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and proceeded routinely to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where it was observed in an approach to the airport.
“The aircraft was observed to make a left turn while on final approach and disappear into clouds and snow showers on a southerly heading toward Bald Eagle Mountain where it was heard to crash shortly thereafter.
“The Board believes that this accident was caused by the captain’s failure to execute a timely abandoned approach. The probable accidental caging of the fluxgate compass, which would have resulted in an erroneous heading indication, is considered to be a likely contributing factor.
“Allegheny Airlines, immediately after learning of the possible effect of an accidental caging of the fluxgate compass, installed guards on the four aircraft in its fleet which had similar fluxgate compass caging switch installations.
“A recommendation has been made by the Board to the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency that suitable guards be required on all aircraft that have fluxgate compass caging switches located in a position which would permit inadvertent actuation.
“Flight 371 of December 1, 1959, was scheduled between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio, with stops at Harrisburg, Williamsport, Bradford, and Erie…Flight 371 departed Harrisburg at 0906 with 22 revenue passengers, one additional crew member….
“At approximately 0945 Flight 371 was observed over the airport, too high however to effect a landing After this initial approach to the field, Flight 371 flew over the field and made a right turn for a circling approach to runway 27 As this circle was apparently completed, the aircraft was observed to roll out of its right turn and into a left turn and proceed in level flight, on a southerly direction, disappearing into snow showers and clouds. One observer believed that at the time the aircraft commenced this left turn to the southerly heading it was approximately one-fourth of a mile from the end of runway 27 and at an altitude of approximately 400 feet above the ground.
“A short while after Flight 371 was seen to disappear into the snow showers and clouds on a southerly heading a loud explosive-type noise was heard at approximately 0947. After all attempts to contact Flight 371 had failed, search and rescue at Olmstead Air Force Base, Middletown, Pennsylvania, was advised of a possible crash. At approximately 1120 the wreckage of Flight 371 was sighted on Bald Eagle Mountain at an elevation of 1,150 m s l. …about one and one-third miles south of the approach end of runway 27…
“At the time of this accident there was no control tower in operation at the Williamsport Airport. Contact with the airport was through the communicator in the Williamsport (FSS) radio facility….
“The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the captain failure to execute a timely abandoned approach. The probable accidental caging of the fluxgate compass, which would have resulted in an erroneous heading indication, is considered to be a likely contributing factor.” (CAB. Allegheny Airlines… Near Williamsport, Pennsylvania, December 1, 1959.)
Titusville Herald: “Montoursville, Pa. (AP) — A twin-engine airliner swung away from the airport after trying an instrument approach Tuesday and rammed a 1,400 foot mountain in a snowstorm. Twenty-five of the 26 aboard were killed.
“Louis Matarazzo, a passenger, was the lone survivor of the Allegheny Airlines flight.
“The Lord opened my side of the plane and I was able to jump out,” he said from his hospital bed in nearby Williamsport. “I fought my way through flames, past the wreckage.”
For hours the airline believed there were 25 aboard, but later it said a copilot, Donald W. Tygert, 26, of Webster, N. Y., came aboard as a passenger in Philadelphia but had not been on the list of those on the plane. Matarazzo, badly burned, was reported in serious condition at a hospital.
“The plane, a Martin executive-type carrying 22 passengers and a crew of three, was en route to
Cleveland from Philadelphia. It was cleared for a landing at the Williamsport – Montoursville airport at 9:41 a.m. A few minutes later it came down, through swirling snow and mist.
Tom Schadt, a salesman at a plant, nearby, said the plane circled away as if planning another approach and then headed directly toward the mountains. “I heard the pilot gun his motors,” Schadt said. “A second or two later there was a gigantic crash.” The plane hit the mountain about midway from the top.
“The local control tower said the pilot had been in contact with it and “this definitely was an instrument landing,” but did not elaborate. An airlines spokesman in Washington said the pilot apparently wanted to make a new and better approach after breaking through the overcast above the airport.
“Snow swept into this central Pennsylvania area during the night and there was about an inch on the ground at the time of the crash.
“Fred Gettys, New Cumberland, Pa., and W. T. Derry, Philadelphia, were found unconscious in
the wreckage but died before they could be brought to a hospital.
“The plane cut a wide swath through the trees. The wreckage was found on a precipitous 45-degree slope. The front half looked as if blows from a giant sledge-hammer had pushed it in. The front also burned but, oddly, the tail section was almost undamaged.
“Matarazzo and the others had to be first strapped to litters and then lowered by rope to a nearby
railroad train set up as an emergency base.
“The crash was the 10th involving United States commercial airliners this year. The 24 killed here raised the total in such accidents to 286 in 1959.
“An Air Force helicopter rescue team first spotted the wreckage, about midway up Bald Eagle Mountain’s rugged terrain. “It’s a complete charred wreckage,” the pilot radioed, “except for the tail section, which is intact.”
“Allegheny Airlines in the last two years has won national awards for safe operations. It had carried passengers since 1949 without a fatal accident.
“The crew was identified as Capt. Thomas R. Goldsmith, 30, of North Olmstead, Ohio, the pilot;
George Matthew Bowers, 32…, of Parma, Ohio, the co-pilot; and William Thompson Conger, 28, of Lakewood, Ohio, the steward.
“The plane left Philadelphia around 7:18 a.m., with scheduled stops at Harrisburg, Williamsport-Montoursville, Bradford and Erie in Pennsylvania before Cleveland. It was Allegheny Flight 371. Montoursville is about 90 miles north of Harrisburg, the state capital.” (Titusville Herald, PA. “25 Lose Lives in Crash of Allegheny Airliner.” 12-2-1959, p. 1.)
Sources
Aircraft Crashes Record Office (Geneva, Switzerland). Pennsylvania. Accessed 3/11/2009 at: http://www.baaa-acro.com/Pays/Etats-Unis/Pennsylvanie.htm
AirDisaster.Com. Accident Database. Accident Synopsis 12011959. Accessed at: http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/view_details.cgi?date=12011959®=N174A&airline=Allegheny+Airlines
Civil Aeronautics Board. Accident Investigation Report. Allegheny Airlines, Inc., Martin 202, N 174A, Near Williamsport, Pennsylvania, December 1, 1959. DC: CAB, Nov 8, 1960, 14 pp. At: http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?file&fn=8&name=*P%3A%5CDOT%5Cairplane%20accidents%5Cwebsearch%5C120159.pdf
Titusville Herald, PA. “25 Lose Lives in Crash of Allegheny Airliner.” 12-2-1959, pp. 1 & 10. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=104246208