1960 — Jan 18, Capital Air 20 icing conditions engine loss, crash, ~Charles City, VA — 50

— 50 AirDisaster.Com. Accident Database. Accident Synopsis 01181960.
— 50 Aviation Safety Network. Accident Description. Capital Air Flight 20, January 18, 1960.
— 50 CAB. AAR. Capital Airlines…Near Charles City, Virginia, January 18, 1960.
— 50 Kimura. World Commercial Aircraft Accidents 3rd Ed., 1946-1993, V.1. 4-11-1994, p. 3-6.

Narrative Information

ASN: “En route from Washington to Norfolk at an altitude of 8000 feet in icing conditions, two engines failed. While descending to a lower altitude, the remaining two engines also failed and the propellers autofeathered. The crew tried to restart the engines and put the aircraft into a dive trying to drive the propellers out of the feathered position as they were not able to unfeather them normally. Eventually they managed to restart engine no. 4. Applying full power to this engine caused the Viscount to enter a circling descent until it crashed into trees with almost no forward velocity.” (ASN, Capital Air Flight 20, Jan 18, 1960.) There were no survivors.

Civil Aeronautics Board: “At approximately 2219 e.s.t., January 18, 1960, a Capital Airlines Viscount, N 7462, en route from Washington, D. C., to Norfolk, Virginia, crashed and burned near Charles City, Virginia. All 46 passengers, including two infants, and the four crew members received fatal injuries. N 7462 crashed in a wooded area, striking the ground in a level attitude, with no forward velocity.

“The Board believes the accident was caused by the delayed arming of the engine ice-protection systems while flying through icing conditions, causing eventual flame-out of the four engines. This condition existed for sufficient time to cause a drop in battery electrical energy, preventing the unfeathering and relighting of sufficient engines to maintain flight. The aircraft was then dived in an effort to attain sufficient airspeed to drive the propellers out of the feathered positions by wind-milling. At the same time, multiple attempts were made to relight one or more engines. Successful relights were either interrupted by auto-feather action initiated by premature advancing of the throttles prior to complete light up of an engine or prevented by insufficient battery electrical energy. No. 4 engine was eventually relit and the crew had just successfully relit No. 3 engine when the aircraft crashed.

As a result of this accident, Capital Airlines dropped the phrase descend to warmer climate for relight from its emergency checklist and instructed its Viscount pilots that relight could be accomplished at any altitude if proper drill were followed. Capital Airlines also adopted a system of checking pilots to ascertain that they had the benefit of the latest operating information.

Capital Airlines Flight 20 of January 18, 1960, originated at Chicago Midway Airport and was to terminate at Norfolk, Virginia, with a stop at Washington, D. C….

The Board determines the probable cause of this accident was the delayed arming of the engine ice-protection systems while flying in icy conditions, resulting in the loss of engine power and attendant electrical energy required to unfeather propellers and relight sufficient engines to maintain flight. (CAB. AAR. Capital Airlines…Near Charles City, Virginia, January 18, 1960.)

Newspaper

Jan 19: Flight 20 “fell only 50 miles short of its Norfolk, Va. Destination.” One of the first people on the scene described the plane as “…all burned and mashed except for the tail.” A UPI report from the scene stated that “The craft fell almost straight down – ‘like a helicopter.’ One rescue worker said – and the victims were cremated in their seats. Rescue teams could not get close to the fiercely-burning place and firemen had to watch it burn because they could not get their equipment to the scene. The wreckage burned for almost eight hours. The plane crashed at about 10:30 p.m. e.s.t. and it was daylight before anyone could get close enough even to poke into the wreckage with sticks.” (Lima News, OH. “50 Die as Airline Crashes In Virginia,” 1-19-1960.)

Sources

AirDisaster.Com. Accident Database. “Accident Synopsis 01181960.” Accessed at: http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/view_details.cgi?date=01181960&reg=N7462&airline=Capitol+Airlines

Aviation Safety Network. Database. Capital Airlines, Monday 18 January 1960, 22:19. Accessed 4-10-2020 at: https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19600118-0

Civil Aeronautics Board. Aircraft Accident Report. Capital Airlines, Inc., Vickers-Armstrongs Viscount, N 7462, Near Charles City, Virginia, January 18, 1960. CAB, Jan 18, 1960, 15 pp. At: http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?file&fn=8&name=*P%3A%5CDOT%5Cairplane%20accidents%5Cwebsearch%5C011860.pdf

Kimura, Chris Y. World Commercial Aircraft Accidents 3rd Edition, 1946-1993, Volume 1: Jet and Turboprop Aircrafts. Livermore, CA: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Risk Assessment and Nuclear Engineering Group. 4-11-1994.

Lima News, OH. “50 Die as Airline Crashes In Virginia,” January 19, 1960. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/freepdfviewer.aspx?img=16085591