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The wreckage of Flight 349 in February 2002.
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Accident | |
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Date | October 30, 1959 |
Summary | Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error |
Site | Bucks Elbow Mountain, Albemarle County, Virginia, U.S. (near Crozet, Virginia, U.S.) 38°06′15″N 78°43′53″W / 38.10417°N 78.73139°W / 38.10417; -78.73139 |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Douglas DC-3 |
Aircraft name | Buckeye Pacemaker |
Operator | Piedmont Airlines |
Registration | N55V |
Flight origin | Washington National Airport, Washington, D.C. |
Destination | Charlottesville–Albemarle Airport |
Occupants | 27 |
Passengers | 24 |
Crew | 3 |
Fatalities | 26 |
Injuries | 1 |
Survivors | 1 (Ernest P. Bradley) |
On October 30, 1959, Piedmont Airlines Flight 349, a Douglas DC-3, crashed on Bucks Elbow Mountain near Crozet, Virginia, killing the crew of three and all but one of its twenty-four passengers. The sole survivor was seriously injured and lay on the ground near the wreckage, still strapped in his seat.[1]
The aircraft was on an instrument landing system (ILS) approach to Charlottesville–Albemarle Airport inbound from Washington National Airport. While performing an inbound turn, the aircraft crashed into Bucks Elbow Mountain at 2,600 feet (790 m).[2]
The subsequent investigation determined the cause of the accident to be:
A navigational omission which resulted in a lateral course error that was not detected and corrected through precision instrument flying procedures. A contributing factor to the accident may have been pre-occupation of the captain resulting from mental stress.[2]
The Air Line Pilots Association conducted its own investigation and came to a very different conclusion. Rather than missing the one turn on their flight, the pilot and co-pilot, according to ALPA, may have been led astray by faulty radio beacons. The ALPA report, citing numerous instances of an intermittent signal at the beacon for the Charlottesville airport, found that the beacon for a private field in Hagerstown, Maryland, could have overridden and caused the collision with the mountain.[3]
The accident aircraft, named Buckeye Pacemaker, was registered as N55V and had construction number 20447. The aircraft had previously flown with Meteor Air Transport as N53593 and was sold to Piedmont Airlines in December 1956.
List of sole survivors of aviation accidents and incidents
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1959 (1959)
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Jan 11 Jan 16 Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 205 Feb 3 Feb 3 Clear Lake crash ("The Day the Music Died") Feb 3 Feb 17 Turkish Airlines Gatwick crash Apr 23 May 12 Jun 22 Jun 26 Jun 30 Aug 15 Aug 19 Transair Douglas Dakota accident Sep 24 Sep 29 Oct 23 Oct 30 Nov 16 Nov 16 Nov 21 Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 202 Dec 1 Dec 4 Dec 13 | |
Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1950s
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1950 |
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1951 |
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1952 |
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1953 |
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1955 |
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1956 |
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1957 |
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1958 |
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1959 |
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This list is incomplete. |