1937 — Oct 17, United Airlines 1 flies into Haydens Peak, Humpy Ridge, UT           –all 19

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 11-15-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–19  Aviation Safety Network. United Airlines, 17 October 1937, 32 km S of Knight.

–19  US Bureau of Air Commerce (DOC).  Report of Investigation Board. Nov 16, 1937.[1]

Narrative Information

Aviation Safety Network. Database, 1937. United Airlines, 17 Oct 1937, 32 km S of Knight:

“Date:                          Sunday 17 October 1937

“Time:                         21:00

“Type:                         Douglas DC-3A-197

“Owner/operator:        United Airlines

“Registration:              NC16074

“MSN:                         1914

“Year of manufacture 1936

“Fatalities                    19 / Occupants: 19

….

“Location:                   32 km S of Knight, WY

“Phase:                        En route

“Nature:                      Passenger – Scheduled

“Departure Airport:     Cheyenne Airport, WY

“Destination airport:   Salt Lake City Municipal Airport, UT

“Investigating agency: CAB

“Narrative:

 

“A Douglas DC-3A passenger plane, operating United Air Lines Trip 1, was destroyed when it crashed into slope of Haydens Peak, WY on the Humpy Ridge. All 19 on board were killed.

 

“Trip 1 originated in Newark, NJ at 08:00 EST, and was scheduled to terminate at Oakland, CA at 01:18 PST. Several intermediate stops were planned. The flight departed Cheyenne Airport, WY (CYS) at 18:26 MST.

 

“Adverse weather conditions existed along the route to Salt Lake City Municipal Airport, UT (SLC). Trip 1 encountered light to moderate snow and light rime ice. About 21:00 local time, the airplane was over mountainous terrain and flew into the side of a mountain at an elevation of about 10.000 feet. The wreckage was located the following morning.

 

[The Probable Cause is from the Civil Aeronautics Board final report which is noted below.]

 

U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce [Civil : “On October 17, 1937, at approximately 9.00 P.M., Mountain Standard Time, at a point about 51 miles east of Salt Lake City, Utah, and 20 miles south and slightly west of Knight, Wyoming, an airplane of United States registry, while being flown in scheduled interstate operation, carrying mail, passengers and express, met with an accident resulting in death to all on board and the complete destruction of the aircraft….

 

“The airplane, a Douglas, model DC-3A, was owned and operated by the United Air Lines Transport Corporation of Chicago, Illinois…..At the time of the accident, it was being operated between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Salt Lake City, Utah, as a part of Trip One of October 17, 1937.  This trip was scheduled to originate in Newark, New Jersey, at 8:00 A.M., Eastern Standard Time, October 17, 1937, and to October 18, 1937…At Cheyenne, airplane NC-16074, which had been serviced subsequent to its arrival 15 hours previously, was substituted for the airplane which had arrived at Cheyenne. The first scheduled stop after departing Cheyenne was Salt Lake City, Utah.

 

“The scheduled time of departure of Trip One from Cheyenne was 6:01 P.M., Mountain Standard Time. Actual departure was not made until 6:26 P.M.….

 

“According to the testimony of the company dispatcher at Cheyenne, the flight plan for this trip as partially prepared by him before consultation with the pilot and co-pilot, showed contact flying Cheyenne to Rock Springs and instrument flying rock Springs to Salt Lake. The altitude was not entered by him. After consultation with Pilot Woodgerd, the dispatcher states that Pilot Woodgerd said that he would fly “intermittent instruments” instead to “instruments” between Rock Springs and Salt Lake and entered the altitude of 10,000 feet on the flight plan. No correction was made on the flight plan changing the previous entry “instruments” to “intermittent instruments”….

 

“When Trip One did not arrive at Salt Lake City within a reasonable time of schedule and failed to respond to radio calls, steps were taken to organize search flights. The first airplane left Salt Lake City at about 1:30 A.M., MST. Weather and darkness hampered the search considerably. However, the wreckage was located from the air at about 9:35 A.M., October 18th, Due to the inaccessibility of the location, it was 10:00 P.M., October 18th, before ground parties reached the wrecked airplane. It was found to have crashed into the side of a mountain known locally as Humpy Ridge at an elevation of slightly more than 10,000 feet.

 

“A careful examination of the wreckage indicated conclusively that the airplane had struck the side of the mountain while traveling in approximately normal level flight, on a compass heading of approximately 235 degree and at or near cruising speed….. It was established that the landing wheels were in the “up” position. There was recovered from the wreckage the flight analyzer, an instrument which records the altitude of flight, indicates the periods of flight during which the automatic pilot is in use and shows those periods, when the aircraft radio transmitter is being used for transmission. The recording made by the flight analyzer indicated that after the initial climb and Cheyenne, the airplane had been flown consistently at an altitude of between 10,000 and 10,400 feet and that the automatic pilot had been in constant use since a few minutes after take-off….

 

“The trip log shows rough air immediately prior to the accident and the flight analyzer recorded this rough air for approximately the last 10 minutes of flight.

 

“In reviewing this flight, it is the opinion of the Investigating Board that, from the weather sequences and forecasts available at the time of dispatch, this did not appear to be a particularly difficult or unusual flight, and that from the flight plan and the Cheyenne dispatcher’s testimony, it was the pilot’s intention to fly contact at 10,000 feet to Rock Springs, Rock Springs to Knight on intermittent instruments and to determine from weather conditions encountered in the vicinity of Knight whether to proceed into Salt Lake City on visual contact via the light beacons or to climb to a higher altitude and complete the trip on instruments. Approximately 50 miles east of Knight, the flight encountered snow static which interfered with the reception of radio range signals…. From the location and heading of the wrecked airplane and the fact that the airplane was not heard to pass over or near Knight leads to the belief that at this point it passed approximately 10 miles to the south of the radio range station…. In the opinion of the Board, this change of flight path was due to drift caused by a change in wind direction, velocity or both, induced primarily by the proximity of the cold front. This drift evidently was not and could not have been reasonably anticipated by the pilot and was not recognized by him, due to his inability to receive intelligible radio range signals or see anything on the ground by which to locate himself….

 

It is the opinion of the Investigating Board that the probable cause of this accident was a combination of the following three factors:

 

  • Static conditions encountered in the last portion of the flight which rendered the reception of radio range signals unintelligible.
  • The continuation of the flight into mountainous country at an altitude below of higher mountains without the aid of ground visibility or radio signals to definitely identify position.
  • A change in the weather caused by the approach of an unpredicted cold front.” (Bureau of Air Commerce (DOC).  Report of Investigation Board. November 16, 1937.)

 

Sources

 

Bureau of Air Commerce (DOC). Report of Investigation Board. November 16, 1937. Accessed 11-15-2024 at: https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/pdfjs/web/viewer.html?file=https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/32997/dot_32997_DS1.pdf

 

Federal Aviation Administration. A Brief History of the FAA (website). Washington, DC: FAA, U.S. Department of Commerce. 1-4-2017 modification.) Accessed 3-21-2017 at: https://www.faa.gov/about/history/brief_history/

 

Aviation Safety Network, Flight Safety Foundation. Database, 1937. United Airlines, 17 October 1937, 32 km S of Knight. Accessed 11-15-2024 at: https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/342281

[1] “In 1934, the Department of Commerce renamed the Aeronautics Branch the Bureau of Air Commerce to reflect the growing importance of aviation to the nation.” (Federal Aviation Administration. A Brief History of the FAA (website). Washington, DC: FAA, U.S. Department of Commerce. 1-4-2017 modification.)