1942 — Dec 15, Western Airlines Flight #1 violent maneuver crash 2M near Fairfield, UT-17
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 5-26-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–17 AP. “Seventeen Die in Air Crash Near Fairfield.” Ogden Standard Examiner, UT. 12-15-1942, p. 1.
–17 Civil Aeronautics Board. Investigation of Aircraft Accident: Western Airlines: Fairfield… p. 2.
–17 Eckert. “Fatal commercial air transport crashes, 1924-1981.” AJFM&P, 3/1, Mar 1983, p53
–17 Planecrashinfo.com. “1942…Accident Details…Fairfield, UT…Western…Dec 15, 1942.”
–17 Salt Lake Tribune. “Utah Skyliner Disaster Snuffs Out 17 Lives.” 12-16-1942, p. 1.
Narrative Information
Civil Aeronautics Board. Investigation of Aircraft Accident: Western Airlines: Fairfield, UT:
“….Flight No. 1 of Western Air Lines, en route from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Burbank, California, via Los Vegas, Nevada, met with an accident approximately 3 miles southeast of Fairfield, Utah, at about 1:22 a.m. (MWT) on December 15, 1942. Thirteen passengers and four crew members were fatally injured, while the remaining two passengers were seriously injured. The Douglas DC3A aircraft, NC 16060, operating in scheduled air carrier service, was completely demolished….: [p. 3.]
Findings
“….
“6. The evidence indicated that the weather conditions in the area at the time were satisfactory for the flight and were not a contributing factor to the accident.
….
“8. There was no indication of mechanical failure of the engines or propellers.
“9. The operation of Western #1 was normal until about 1:22 a.m.
“10. Normal flight was apparently interrupted at an altitude of approximately 10,200 feet by a failure of the aircraft’s structure.
“11. A subsequent study indicated that the left, or possibly both wing tips, and the horizontal tail surfaces had failed during a pull-up as a result of air load conditions which were sufficiently severe to impose stresses in excess of those for which these parts of the structure were designed.
“12. The first officer and the copilot-trainee were at the controls at the time the airplane struck the ground while the captain had been in the companionway, either seated in the jump seat or standing.
Conclusions
“On the bases of all of the facts, conditions and circumstances known to the Board at this time, it is concluded that failure of the left, or possibly both wing tips, and of the horizontal tail surfaces occurred in the air during a severe pull-up. However, no definite conclusion can be drawn from the evidence as to whether the pull-up was caused by operation of the controls by the crew; or by some other forces beyond their control. Due to the lack of any plausible theory for the latter, it seems more probable that the maneuver was initiated by the crew, possibly in an attempt to avoid collision with a bird, another aircraft, or some object which they saw or thought they saw….”
Planecrashinfo.com: “Time 01:22…Flight #1…Route: Salt Lake–Las Vegas–Burbank…
Douglas DC-3A…Registration NC 16060…Aboard: 19 (passengers: 15 Crew: 4) Fatalities: 17 (passengers: 13 Crew: 4)…. Crashed after performing a violent maneuver. Failure of the left, or possibly both wing tips and of the horizontal tail surfaces as a result of a sever pull-up which caused unusual and abnormally high air loads. The reason the pull-up maneuver was not determined.” (Planecrashinfo.com. “1942…Accident Details… Western Airlines…December 15, 1942… Fairfield, UT…”)
Newspaper
May 26, AP: “Salt Lake City, Dec. 15 (AP) – Wreckage of a Western Airlines transport, which carried 19 persons, was located today about two miles from the emergency landing field at Fairfield, Utah.
“Casper Wolf of Provo, Utah, a member of the civil air patrol, who sighted the wreckage from the air, reported to CAA Inspector Howard Harris that he had landed his light patrol plane on the flats less than 100 yards from where the W.A.L. plane had hit. Wolf told Harris in a United Press dispatch, that he walked over to the wreckage, found that two persons were alive, made the survivors as comfortable as possible, then took off again to report his find. He said the plane was badly wrecked. Ground parties were sent to the scene, said the Associated Press.
“Fairfield is about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City, in semi-rugged Cedar valley where the plane was last reported heard while en route to Los Angeles from Salt Lake City early this morning….A road from Lehi winds around the north edge of Utah Lake and thence to Fairfield, passing near the point where the plane was sighted.
“The plane carried 12 civilian passengers and a crew of four. In addition, there were military personnel aboard, but airlines officials said they could not disclose their names….
“Planes from the Western Airlines, United Airlines, C.A.C, and army air bases in the Salt Lake area took part in the search. The weather conditions hampered the search apparently more than the ruggedness of the country….
“The two-motored plane left Salt Lake City at one-five a.m., Mountain War time, en route to Los Angeles, where it was due about four hours later. Executive Vice President Leo Werlkotte, announcing that an aerial search was underway, said the missing transport failed to report by radio after leaving Salt Lake City. The civil aeronautics authority station at Fairfield, Utah, reported the craft was overhead about one-thirty a.m., 15 minutes after leaving the municipal airport. Thereafter there was only silence.
“Fairfield is a village in Cedar valley, 50 miles south of Salt Lake City. Semi-rugged mountains dot the landscape here and there, but much of the country is desert where a forced landing probably could be made. The elevation is 4,866, only a few hundred feet higher than Utah’s capital.
“Airline officials said nobody had reported hearing or seeing the plane after it left the Fairfield vicinity, which is on the Salt Lake City-Los Angeles route….” (Associated Press. “Seventeen Die in Air Crash Near Fairfield.” Ogden Standard Examiner, UT. 12-15-1942, 1.)
May 27, SLT: “Seventeen persons were killed and two others escaped with serious injuries early Tuesday when a Western Air Lines transport crashed on a sagebrush flat three miles east of Fairfield and 30 miles west of Provo. The plane, missing since taking off from the Salt Lake airport at 1:05 a.m., was found by Lieutenant Casper Woolf of Provo, a civilian air patrol pilot, at 12:10 p.m. It had pancaked to earth in the flats of Cedar valley about two miles west of Lake mountain, which separates the valley from Utah lake, and in an isolated section familiar only to ranchers and sheepherders….
“The dead:
Mrs. Leona Rosell…Salt Lake City…
- R. Bratt…Salt Lake City
Richard W. James…Salt Lake City…a W.A.L. employe [Western Air Lines]
Knight Bennett, contractor, of Glendale, Cal.
Fred Lewis, Los Angeles.
- O. Hart, Orange, Cal., owner of the Orange Daily News.
Guy Talbot Jr., Great Falls, Mont., W.A.L. regional traffic manager
Miss C. Weersing, no address given, listed as a relative of W A L employes.
Mrs. George Skylstead, Las Vegas, Nev.
- H. Hustrasd [unclear], Missouri Valley, Iowa.
- E. Cummings, 42, Denver, Colo. Medical school staff of the University of Colorado.
Lieutenant T. A. Baldwin, Omaha, Neb.
Lieutenant H. E. McCrae, Denver.
Captain Edward J. Loeffler, Glendale, Cal., pilot.
- Clifton Lee, Salt Lake City, copilot.
Miss Cleo Booth, Glendale, Cak,m stewardess.
“Douglas Soule, St. Petersburg, Fla., a student copilot….”
(Salt Lake Tribune. “Utah Skyliner Disaster Snuffs Out 17 Lives.” 12-16-1942, p. 1.)
Sources
Associated Press. “Seventeen Die in Air Crash Near Fairfield.” Ogden Standard Examiner, UT. 12-15-1942, 1. Accessed 5-26-2024 at:
https://newspaperarchive.com/ogden-standard-examiner-dec-15-1942-p-1/
Civil Aeronautics Board. Investigation of Aircraft Accident: Western Airlines: Fairfield, Utah: 1942-12-15. Adopted 10-5-1943. Accessed 5-26-2024 at: https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/33069
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.
Planecrashinfo.com. “1942…Accident Details… Western Airlines…December 15, 1942… Fairfield, UT…” http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1942/1942-35.htm
Salt Lake Tribune. “Utah Skyliner Disaster Snuffs Out 17 Lives.” 12-16-1942, p. 1. Accessed 5-26-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/salt-lake-tribune-dec-16-1942-p-1/