1964 — July 9, United Air Flight 823 Fire and Crash, near Parrottsville, TN — 39

— 39 AirDisaster.Com. Accident Database. Accident Synopsis 07091964.
— 39 Aviation Safety Network. Accident Description. United Flight 823, July 9, 1964.
— 39 CAB. AAR. United Air Lines…Near Parrottsville, Tennessee, July 9, 1964.
— 39 Kimura. World Commercial Aircraft Accidents 3rd Ed., 1946-1993, V.1. 4-11-1994, p. 3-7.

Narrative Information

ASN: United Flight 823 took off from Washington National Airport at 4:36 on July 9, 1964 for a flight to Knoxville and Huntsville carrying 35 passengers and a crew of 4. (ASN. Accident Description. United Flight 823, July 9, 1964.)

Civil Aeronautics Board: “A United Air Lines, Inc., Vickers Viscount 745D, N7405, Flight 823, crashed 2-1/4 rules northeast of Parrottsville Tennessee, at 1815 e.s.t., July 9, 1964. Thirty-four passengers and the four crewmembers died in the crash. One passenger died of injuries following a free fall from the aircraft before the crash. The aircraft was destroyed by fire and impact damage.

“Flight 823 was a regularly scheduled operation from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Huntsville, Alabama, with en route stops at Washington, D. C., and Knoxville, Tennessee. The flight operated without any reported discrepancies or difficulties until approximately 1810 e.s.t., when it was observed flying at low altitude trailing smoke. The flight continued in a southwesterly direction and at a point approximately 1.6 nautical rules before the impact site, a passenger was seen falling from the aircraft, and a short time later a cabin window was seen falling. The aircraft was then observed going into a nose-high attitude, the left wing and the nose went down, and the aircraft dived into the ground, exploded, and burned….

“The aircraft, N7405, operated as United Air Lines (UAL) Flight 609 from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, to Philadelphia with intermediate stops at Washington, D. C., Buffalo and Elmira, New York, and Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The aircraft departed Raleigh-Durham at 0705 1 and arrived at Philadelphia at 1245. The captain and senior stewardess of the flight from Buffalo to Philadelphia stated that the flight was routine and the aircraft operated normally….

“Approximately one minute after having reported passing Holston Mountain, the crew 4 requested a clearance to descend to the lowest available altitude. They were cleared to descend to and maintain 8,000 feet. Three minutes later the crew cancelled their IFR clearance. The controller offered to pass control of the flight to Knoxville Approach Control when they were closer in and advised they could stay on the Center frequency. At 1802:55 the crew responded to this transmission with “OK.” This was the last known transmission from the aircraft.

“The aircraft’s radar target disappeared from the controller’s scope at 1813:30. At 1814 after waiting four sweeps of the radar antenna, the Atlanta controller called the aircraft to advise them he had lost radar contact but he received no reply.

“Numerous ground witnesses observed the aircraft flying at what they considered to be a very low altitude. Witnesses estimated the altitude of the aircraft to be from 200-500 feet above the ground along a line generally parallel to, but south of, V16. The last 10 to 12 miles of the flightpath were observed by a number of ground witnesses, several of whom stated they saw smoke of varying density apparently coming from the fuselage of the aircraft.

“The first witness to report smoke from the aircraft was approximately five miles from the crash scene. He stated that “. . . smoke was coming out of the tail part . . .” and “. . . there were brown spots like the paint was off of it about half way back on the body . . . .” Witnesses about one mile farther along the flightpath did not observe anything unusual, except the low altitude, until the aircraft had passed them at which time they observed smoke coming from the aircraft.

“A number of witnesses about two miles from the crash site, near the flightpath, did observe black smoke coming from the aircraft fuselage near the wings. A large black object, later identified as a passenger, was observed to fall away from the aircraft, followed by dense black smoke. The witnesses stated that the object did not strike the tail of the aircraft after coming out the left side over the wing. Farther along the flightpath a bright object, later identified as the left No. 9 emergency cabin window, fell from the aircraft. Heavy smoke was seen continuing to come from the aircraft….

“Shortly after the passenger and the window fell from the plane the aircraft nosed up, the left wing went down, the aircraft nosed down and crashed into a rocky wooded hillside.

“The crash occurred approximately 41 nautical miles east-northeast of the Knoxville VORTAC and about 2-1/4 nautical miles northeast of Parrottsville, Tennessee, 5 at approximately 1815….

“Burns on the free-fall victim and fire-damaged passenger cabin material found remotely from the primary impact and ground fire area established conclusively that there was an inflight fire in the passenger cabin. Evidence of use of the portable cabin CO2 extinguisher and the attempt to use the portable water extinguisher, together with the open valve of a flight crew walk-around oxygen bottle are suggestive of the first officer having gone back to the cabin to fight the fire a few minutes before the crash. Opening the outflow valves, the left side cockpit window, and emergency exits was probably done in connection with smoke evacuation efforts….

“The combustible material and source of ignition that started the fire are not known. Although attempts to determine if any passenger had carried any hazardous material aboard the aircraft did not reveal this had occurred, the possibility cannot be ruled out. Such a material, either innocently or with malicious intent may have been in the possession of a passenger. Leakage or spillage of a flammable fluid with accidental or intentional ignition is a possible situation….

“In examining the final maneuver and crash, it is apparent that the aircraft was not under control of the crew. There are a number of hypotheses that can be advanced to explain this loss of control including: distraction of the pilot; failure of the flight control rods due to fire damage; incapacitation of the pilot by heat and/or smoke, a shift of loading caused by the passengers moving to the aft end of the cabin, an overt act by some person aboard the aircraft, or any combination of these. There is no probative evidence available to the Board on which to base a determination as to the cause of the final maneuver….

“The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was an uncontrollable inflight fire of undetermined origin, in the fuselage, which resulted in a loss of control of the aircraft.” (CAB. AAR. United Air Lines…Near Parrottsville, Tennessee, July 9, 1964.)

Sources

AirDisaster.Com. Accident Database. Accident Synopsis 07091964. Accessed at: http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/view_details.cgi?date=07091964&reg=N7405&airline=United+Airlines

Aviation Safety Network. Accident Description. United Air Lines Flight 823, July 9, 1964. Accessed 12/23/2008 at: http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19640709-0

Civil Aeronautics Board. Aircraft Accident Report. United Air Lines, Inc., Vickers Viscount 745D, N7405, N7405, Near Parrottsville, Tennessee, July 9, 1964. Washington, DC: CAB (File No. 1-0033), June 9, 1966, 33 pages. Accessed at: http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?file&fn=8&name=*P%3A%5CDOT%5Cairplane%20accidents%5Cwebsearch%5C070964.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.