1962 — May 22, Continental Flight 11 blown-up by passenger, Unionville, MO — 45

–45 AirDisaster.Com. Accident Database. Accident Synopsis 05221962.
–45 Aerospaceweb.org. Commercial Airliner Bombings. “22 May 1962-Continental Flight 11”
–45 Aviation Safety Network. Criminal Occurrence Description. Continental Flight 11.
–45 CAB. AAR. Continental Air Lines…Near Unionville, Missouri, May 22, 1962.
–45 Charleston Daily Mail (WV). “45 Perish…Plane Falls…Storm…Cause,” 23 May 1962.
–45 Kimura. World Commercial Aircraft Accidents 3rd Edition, V.1. 4-11-1994, p. 2-6.

Narrative Information

Aerospaceweb.org: “The first commercial jet airliner to be sabotaged was Continental 11 en route from Chicago to Kansas City to Los Angeles. The Boeing 707 carried 45 people (37 passengers, 8 crew) when a dynamite bomb hidden in a towel container under the washbasin in the right rear lavatory detonated. The blast caused the plane’s tail to break away from the rest of the fuselage and the aircraft went out of control, crashing near Unionville, Missouri, and taking the lives of everyone aboard. Responsibility was blamed on a passenger named Thomas Doty who had a criminal record and purchased a large life insurance policy shortly before the flight.” (Aerospaceweb.org.)

ASN: “Continental Flight 11 took off from Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) at 20:35 for a one hour flight to Kansas City (MKC). The airplane climbed to FL390 and was vectored around a storm area. Just before the Waverly controller wanted to hand off Flight 11 Kansas City Center, in the vicinity of Centerville, IA, an explosive decompression occurred. The flight crew initiate the required emergency descent procedures and donned their smoke masks due to the dense fog which formed in the cabin immediately after the decompression. At separation of the tail, the remaining aircraft structure pitched nose down violently, causing the engines to tear off, after which it fell in uncontrolled gyrations. The fuselage of the Boeing 707, minus the aft 38 feet, and with part of the left and most of the right wing intact, struck the ground, headed westerly down a 10-degree slope of an alfalfa field.

”Investigation by the FBI revealed that Thomas G. Doty had purchased a life insurance policy for $150,000, the maximum available; his death would also bring in another $150,000 in additional insurance (some purchased at the airport) and death benefits. Doty had recently been arrested for armed robbery and was to soon face a preliminary hearing in the matter. Investigators determined that Doty had purchased dynamite shortly before the crash, and were able to deduce that a bomb had been placed in the used towel bin of the right rear lavatory.” (ASN. Criminal Occurrence Description. Continental Flight 11, 22 May 1962)

CAB: “The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the disintegrating force of a dynamite explosion which occurred in the right rear lavatory, resulting in destruction of the aircraft.” (CAB. AAR. Continental Air Lines…Near Unionville, Missouri, May 22, 1962)

Newspapers

May 23: “Unionville, Mo. (AP)—A $5 million Continental Airline jet, believed torn apart by a violent storm, fell to the ground in sections last night, killing all 45 persons aboard. The only known survivor, rescued from an intact section of fuselage after an all-night search, died in a hospital 90 minutes later….a member of a Continental Airlines investigation team, said the flight should have been at about 39,000 feet and traveling 500 to 600 miles per hour at the time of the crash…. The big craft, a Boeing 707…make its last report at 9:15 p.m. (CST) from a position…about 120 air miles northeast of Kansas City where it was due to land about 25 minutes later.” (Charleston Daily Mail (WV). “45 Perish…Plane Falls…Storm…Cause,” 23 May 1962.)

May 25: “Kansas City (AP)….The first torn and blooded fragments of flight 11 were found more than three hours later near Cincinnati, Ia., 40 miles north-northwest of Kirksville. The fuselage turned up a few miles to the southwest, near Unionville, Mo. The forth-fifth body wasn’t found until Thursday afternoon, about a mile northeast of the spot where the fuselage landed.” (Cedar Rapids Gazette, IA. “’Tidal Wave of Air May Have Caused Plane Crash,” May 25, 1962.)

June 16: “WASHINGTON (UPI) —Tests have confirmed that dynamite wrecked the plane which crashed near Centerville, Iowa, May the Civil Aeronautics Board said Saturday.

“WASHINGTON (AP)— A troubled man, who had talked of suicide, bought a supply of dynamite shortly before boarding a plane which crashed and killed 45, an FBI investigation has disclosed….Thomas Doty, 34, of Kansas City, took out more than $300,000 insurance payable to his wife before boarding the flight. He was described as despondent and as having told acquaintances a few days before that he was planning to take his life rather than face criminal charges. The investigation also turned up a purchase of dynamite by Doty at a hardware store in the Kansas City area, and traces of dynamite were found by the FBI laboratory on parts of the plane’s tail section, it was reported….Doty, a former divisional sales manager for a Kansas City cosmetics firm, was arrested in April on charges of armed robbery and carrying a concealed weapon. Traveling with him was Geneva Fraley, his business associate in a home furnishing firm they were planning to start. She was insured for $75,000.” (Cedar Rapids Gazette (IA). “Suicide Talk By Passenger; Dynamite Blamed for Iowa Crash,” June 16, 1962.)

Sources

Aerospaceweb.org. Commercial Airliner Bombing History. Accessed 12-21-2008 at: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/planes/q0283.shtml

AirDisaster.Com. Accident Database. Accident Synopsis 05221962. Accessed at: http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/view_details.cgi?date=05221962&reg=N70775&airline=Continental+Airlines

Aviation Safety Network. Criminal Occurrence Description. Continental Flight 11, 22 May 1962. Accessed 12-22-2008 at: http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19620522-0

Cedar Rapids Gazette, IA. “Suicide Talk By Passenger; Dynamite Blamed for Iowa Crash.” 6-16-1962, p. 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=46240175

Cedar Rapids Gazette, IA. “‘Tidal Wave of Air May Have Caused Plane Crash.” 5-25-1962, p. 8. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=42190367

Charleston Daily Mail, WV. “45 Perish As Plane Falls; Violent Storm Held Cause,” 5-23-1962. p. 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=46614096

Civil Aeronautics Board. Aircraft Accident Report. Continental Air Lines, Inc., Boeing 707-124, N 70775, Near Unionville, Missouri, May 22, 1962. Washington, DC: CAB, August 1, 1962. At: http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?websearch&site=dot_aircraftacc

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.