1951 — Jan 16, Northwest Orient Flight 115 uncontrolled dive to ground ~Reardan, WA–10
–10 AirDisaster.com. Accident Database. Accident Synopsis 01161951.
–10 Aviation Safety Network. Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 115, 16 Jan 1951.
–10 Civil Aeronautics Board. Northwest Airlines… Near Reardan, Washington, Jan 16, 1951.
–10 Eckert. “Fatal commercial air transport crashes, 1924-1981.” AJFM&P, 3/1, Mar 1982, Table 1.
Narrative Information
U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board: “Northwest Airlines Flight 115 of January 16, 1951, a Martin 202, N-93054, crashed about three miles west of Reardan, Washington at approximately 1214. The seven passengers and the three crew members were killed, and the aircraft was demolished…
“Flight 115 originated at Minneapolis, Minnesota, for Seattle, Washington, with several scheduled stops including Billings, Montana, and Spokane, Washington. It departed Minneapolis at 0110, on schedule, made two planned stops, and arrived at Billings at 0512, eight minutes behind schedule because of head winds. These three segments of the flight were routine.
“At Billings the crew was changed…. Departure from Billings was at 0540, twenty-five minutes late because of ramp congestion. The flight made intermediate stops en route to Kalispel, Montana, without reported incident. Between Kalispel and Spokane it radioed that oil temperature in the right engine was high, but shortly radioed that the oil temperature had dropped to normal Landing at Spokane was at 1122, fifty-two minutes late due to head winds and station delays. Water was found in the right engines oil cooler air scoop, the high oil temperature was attributed to the temporary presence of ice or snow in that scoop.
“At Spokane the aircraft was checked visually, and departed Geiger Field at 1204 with the same crew, seven passengers… The flight plan was under Instrument Flight Rules to cruise at 6,000 feet Mean Sea Level between Spokane and Wenatchee, Washington….
“Four minutes after takeoff, at 1208, the flight reported having reached the cruising level of 6,000 feet MSL at 1207. At 1212 it was given the Wenatchee weather which was below minima. The flight immediately asked clearance to the next scheduled stop, Yakima, where the weather was above minima. While the Spokane radio operator was obtaining the requested clearance, the flight broadcasted an emergency message. This was at about 1213, only some 15 seconds after asking for the new clearance. No difficulty of any sort had been reported previously.
“This emergency message was copied by company operators at Spokane, Yakima and Seattle. At the latter place it was also recorded on a magnetic tape by Aeronautical Radio, Inc., an independent radio organization serving several air carriers. The message was in three short sentences. All operators agree that the first was, We are in trouble, and that the last was, Going down fast. The middle sentence was interpreted by one operator as, Plane gone nuts and by the second as, Right engine haywire. The third operator put down a series of Qs, meaning not understood….
“The time of impact was fixed at close to 1214. A woman who was in her home, only a few hundred feet from the impact site, heard the crash and telephoned the nearby United States Air Force Fairchild Air Base, where the time of the call was recorded. Local persons had previously been briefed on this procedure by the Air Force and had been given the telephone number to call, as well as gridded maps to help in reporting the location of a crash.
“The aircraft struck the ground which was at an altitude of 2,310 feet MSL, while on a heading of about 245 degrees in a nose-down attitude of about 45 degrees and with its right wing low. The speed of the air craft at impact was high as evidenced by the explosive-like violence of the general disintegration and the fact that one air speed indicator showed about 340 miles per hour. Thousands of pieces of wreckage fanned out in a general southwesterly direction but were fairly localized due to the steep angle of impact. A number of relatively small and light pieces of wreckage were found north of the crash site as far as two and one quarter miles…..
“Despite the intensity of effort involving a great number of man hours by many technicians, and extending over many months, nothing was found in any of this wreckage to allow a determination of the initial trouble. This intense effort included actual reconstruction of many suspected portions of the aircraft, complete tracing of control systems, and thorough probing into numerous contingencies and combinations of contingencies. Moreover, a review of the pertinent maintenance records did not reveal any evidence that would indicate that the aircraft was not in an airworthy condition prior to takeoff from Spokane….
“The Board, after extensive study of all evidence determines that the probable cause of this accident was a sudden loss of control for reasons unknown, resulting in rapid descent to the ground.” (CAB. AIR. Northwest Airlines, Inc., Near Reardan, Washington, January 16, 1951.)
AirDisaster.com: “The aircraft entered an uncontrolled dive while on approach to Spokane. The cause was never determined.” (AirDisaster.com. Accident Database. Accident Synopsis 01161951.)
Sources
AirDisaster.com. Accident Database. Accident Synopsis 01161951. Accessed at: http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/view_details.cgi?date=01161951®=N93054&airline=Northwest+Orient
Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation, Database, 1951. Accident Description. Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 115, 16 Jan 1951. Accessed 2-17-2009 at:
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19510116-0
Civil Aeronautics Board. Accident Investigation Report. Northwest Airlines, Inc., Near Reardan, Washington, January 16, 1951. Washington, DC: CAB, Accessed at: http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?file&fn=8&name=*P%3A%5CDOT%5Cairplane%20accidents%5Cwebsearch%5C011651.pdf
Eckert, William G. “Fatal commercial air transport crashes, 1924-1981.” American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol. 3, No. 1, March 1982, Table 1.