United Airlines Flight 409
Encyclopedia
United Airlines
Flight 409 was a scheduled flight departing from Denver, Colorado
to Salt Lake City, Utah
on October 6, 1955. The aircraft registration
number was , a Douglas DC-4
propliner
. The aircraft crashed into Medicine Bow Peak
, near Centennial, Wyoming
, killing all 66 people on board (63 passengers, 3 crew members.) The victims included five female members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
and military personnel. At the time, this was the deadliest airline crash in U.S. commercial aviation
history.
V-4 Denver to Laramie, Wyoming
V-118 to Rock River, Wyoming
radio, V-6 to Fort Bridger, Wyoming
, and V-32 to a landing in Salt Lake City. The flight was operating under Visual Flight Rules
and was assigned a cruising altitude of 10,000 feet. Because the aircraft was not pressurized
, the altitude was chosen to keep the passengers and crew from experiencing the discomfort that flying higher could cause. The route assigned to the airliner was specifically designed to allow safe passage at 10,000 feet over the continental divide
in the Rocky Mountains
.(if links above fail to load report, visit http://dotlibrary.specialcollection.net and select "Historical Aircraft Accident Reports (1934-1965)", then retry report links)
An expected position report from the United crew, scheduled for 8:11 a.m. while over Rock Springs, was not received, and repeated attempts to make radio contact with flight 409 were met with no response. With the airliner's status unknown, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was alerted to the missing aircraft. No radar
was in place for civil aviation in this region in 1955. With no radar traces, manual searches were required to find the aircraft.
launched two search aircraft: a two-seat T-33 Shooting Star
piloted by Mel Conine and a single seat F-80 Shooting Star piloted by Ed Weed. Working on the assumption that the United plane may have taken an unauthorized short cut to make up for the 83-minute delay out of Denver, the two search planes pointed their aircraft toward the highest mountains in the region, Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow Peak. After a search of Elk Mountain failed to find the missing DC-4, Conine and his observer spotted at 11:40 a.m. a black stain and wreckage just southwest of the highest portion of Medicine Bow Peak. Turbulence
kept them too far away to locate any possible survivors and they left the site to return to their base in Cheyenne
.
The New York Times (Oct. 7, 1955) reported:
at the crash site. At the base of the almost perpendicular cliff where the aircraft hit, movement was hindered by a wide talus
of weathered, fragmented rock and large boulders, all piled loosely on a steep slope. Mountaineers doing the recovery work also had to be constantly wary of rock falls that might be triggered by the activities of those above them on the cliff face. Cold weather and occasional snow also played a role in impeding recovery efforts. The recovery of human remains was not completed until the evening of October 11, 1955, five full days after the accident.
techniques— was unable to visit the cliff location where the DC-4 initially hit. Study of the wreckage that could be retrieved for examination suggested a nose up attitude and an unusually low airspeed
of the plane, implying that the plane was attempting a climb at the time of its crash. The reasons for this are not explicitly known, but several theories exist:
Possible incapacitation of crew by carbon monoxide
emanating from a faulty cabin heater was speculated upon based on recovery crew observations that crew bodies appeared 'discolored.' This theory was never proven, and the CAB report specifically states that there was no evidence to support crew incapacitation.
After the investigation of the accessible wreckage was completed, United Airlines requested that the remaining debris be destroyed by the military. Attempts were made to accomplish this, but despite the use of explosives, artillery fire and —according to most sources— napalm
bombs dropped from aircraft, complete obliteration of the wreckage was not possible. One source, a 2007 book about the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, contradicts the assertion that military jets bombed the site with napalm; instead, the book states that the cliff face was mined with explosives that were detonated in the spring of 1956, and the event was tightly controlled and not publicized. Regardless of the disposal method, small fragments of flight 409's airframe and parts of the engines still exist in the area surrounding the crash site.
, when 58 died. The 66 lives lost on Medicine Bow Peak remained the highest death toll on a scheduled airline flight in the U.S. for less than a year. In June 1956 two airliners, a Super Constellation and a DC-7, collided over the Grand Canyon
, killing 128 people. Flight 409's crash, and other crashes and mid-air collisions in the United States that occurred over the next several years, convinced the U.S. Congress to improve airline safety
procedures, and to increase civil aviation radar coverage.
It is customary for many airlines to retire a flight number if the flight is involved in a fatal incident, but United currently uses the flight 409 designation today on Baltimore-Chicago (O'Hare)-Los Angeles route.
In August 2001 a stone with a bronze memorial plaque was placed just west of the Medicine Bow Libby Flats lookout off of Wyoming Highway 130
(Snowy Range Road), in an area called the Miner's Cabin turnout. The location faces the mountain where the crash occurred.
In the film Beetlejuice
, when Adam (Alec Baldwin
) and Barbra (Geena Davis
) are in the office (representing the afterlife
), a voice on the PA systems announces the arrival of Flight 409 ("Flight 409 is arriving at Gate 3").
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
Flight 409 was a scheduled flight departing from Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
to Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
on October 6, 1955. The aircraft registration
Aircraft registration
An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...
number was , a Douglas DC-4
Douglas DC-4
The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engined propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s in a military role...
propliner
Propliner
A propliner is a large, propeller-driven airliner. Typically, the term is used for piston-powered airliners that flew before the beginning of the jet age, not for modern turbine-powered propeller airliners...
. The aircraft crashed into Medicine Bow Peak
Medicine Bow Peak
Medicine Bow Peak is the highest peak in the Snowy Range, a part of the Medicine Bow Mountains, about 35 miles west of Laramie, Wyoming. It lies within Medicine Bow National Forest. The summit lies in extreme western Albany County, but the mountain's lower reaches stretch westward into eastern...
, near Centennial, Wyoming
Centennial, Wyoming
Centennial is a census-designated place in Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 191 at the 2000 census.-History:As the Union Pacific Railroad was pushing west to link up with the Central Pacific Railroad, as part of the First Transcontinental Railroad, they sent logging crews...
, killing all 66 people on board (63 passengers, 3 crew members.) The victims included five female members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, sometimes colloquially referred to as MoTab, is a Grammy and Emmy Award winning, 360-member, all-volunteer choir. The choir is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . However, the choir is completely self-funded, traveling and producing albums to...
and military personnel. At the time, this was the deadliest airline crash in U.S. commercial aviation
Commercial aviation
Commercial aviation is the part of civil aviation that involves operating aircraft for hire to transport passengers or cargo...
history.
Timeline
Flight 409 left Denver, Colorado at 6:33 a.m. on October 6, 1955. This was 83 minutes after its scheduled departure time. The assigned path the airliner was expected to fly was along airwaysAirway (aviation)
In aviation, an airway is a designated route in the air. Airways are laid out between navigational aids such as VORs, NDBs and Intersections ....
V-4 Denver to Laramie, Wyoming
Laramie, Wyoming
Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 30,816 at the . Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287....
V-118 to Rock River, Wyoming
Rock River, Wyoming
Rock River is a town in Albany County, Wyoming, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 235.-Geography:Rock River is located at ....
radio, V-6 to Fort Bridger, Wyoming
Fort Bridger, Wyoming
Fort Bridger is a census-designated place in Uinta County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 400 at the 2000 census. The town takes its name from the eponymous Fort Bridger established in 1842.-Geography:...
, and V-32 to a landing in Salt Lake City. The flight was operating under Visual Flight Rules
Visual flight rules
Visual flight rules are a set of regulations which allow a pilot to operate an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better than basic VFR weather minimums, as specified in the rules of the...
and was assigned a cruising altitude of 10,000 feet. Because the aircraft was not pressurized
Cabin pressurization
Cabin pressurization is the pumping of compressed air into an aircraft cabin to maintain a safe and comfortable environment for crew and passengers when flying at altitude.-Need for cabin pressurization:...
, the altitude was chosen to keep the passengers and crew from experiencing the discomfort that flying higher could cause. The route assigned to the airliner was specifically designed to allow safe passage at 10,000 feet over the continental divide
Continental divide
A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not connected to the open sea...
in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
.(if links above fail to load report, visit http://dotlibrary.specialcollection.net and select "Historical Aircraft Accident Reports (1934-1965)", then retry report links)
An expected position report from the United crew, scheduled for 8:11 a.m. while over Rock Springs, was not received, and repeated attempts to make radio contact with flight 409 were met with no response. With the airliner's status unknown, the Civil Aeronautics Authority was alerted to the missing aircraft. No radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
was in place for civil aviation in this region in 1955. With no radar traces, manual searches were required to find the aircraft.
Search effort
The Wyoming Air National GuardWyoming Air National Guard
The Wyoming Air National Guard is the air force militia of the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is, along with the Wyoming Army National Guard, an element of the Wyoming National Guard...
launched two search aircraft: a two-seat T-33 Shooting Star
T-33 Shooting Star
The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star is an American-built jet trainer aircraft. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948, piloted by Tony LeVier. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then designated T-33A. It was used by the...
piloted by Mel Conine and a single seat F-80 Shooting Star piloted by Ed Weed. Working on the assumption that the United plane may have taken an unauthorized short cut to make up for the 83-minute delay out of Denver, the two search planes pointed their aircraft toward the highest mountains in the region, Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow Peak. After a search of Elk Mountain failed to find the missing DC-4, Conine and his observer spotted at 11:40 a.m. a black stain and wreckage just southwest of the highest portion of Medicine Bow Peak. Turbulence
Turbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a flow regime characterized by chaotic and stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid variation of pressure and velocity in space and time...
kept them too far away to locate any possible survivors and they left the site to return to their base in Cheyenne
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...
.
The New York Times (Oct. 7, 1955) reported:
"First rescuers to reach the scene said they had found about 50 bodies strewn along a 300-foot course down the face of the mountain. Only a tail piece, part of the fuselage and a wing of the plane had been located at mid-afternoon by rescuers who fought snowdrifts and a howling wind on the 12,005-foot Medicine Bow Peak. The mountain is about 40 miles west of here in the Snowy Range. The front part of the split plane was believed to have fallen down the other side of the peak. Another rescue group went up the north face of the mountain from Rawlins. The operation was suspended this evening because of a snowstorm and darkness.
The scene was marked by two huge patches of oil where the plane's engines apparently struck about 50-75 feet from the peak. The wreckage then slid down the steep incline in two ravines, much of it coming to rest 300 feet down on a small glacier. I don't see how there would be a chance of anyone surviving, said Capt. Conine, Wyoming Air National Guard jet pilot, who was one of the first to spot the wreckage.
A C-47 was sent from Cheyenne, Wyo., to circle the peak, particularly the northwest side, to search for the front portion of the plane. The Civil Aeronautics Administration said planes were unable to fly near the mountain because of the weather conditions.
Recovery
Recovery of the widely-scattered remains of the victims was extremely challenging due to the difficult terrainTerrain
Terrain, or land relief, is the vertical and horizontal dimension of land surface. When relief is described underwater, the term bathymetry is used...
at the crash site. At the base of the almost perpendicular cliff where the aircraft hit, movement was hindered by a wide talus
Scree
Scree, also called talus, is a term given to an accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, or valley shoulders. Landforms associated with these materials are sometimes called scree slopes or talus piles...
of weathered, fragmented rock and large boulders, all piled loosely on a steep slope. Mountaineers doing the recovery work also had to be constantly wary of rock falls that might be triggered by the activities of those above them on the cliff face. Cold weather and occasional snow also played a role in impeding recovery efforts. The recovery of human remains was not completed until the evening of October 11, 1955, five full days after the accident.
Investigation
Due to safety concerns, the CAB accident investigation team —not trained in alpine mountaineeringMountaineering
Mountaineering or mountain climbing is the sport, hobby or profession of hiking, skiing, and climbing mountains. While mountaineering began as attempts to reach the highest point of unclimbed mountains it has branched into specialisations that address different aspects of the mountain and consists...
techniques— was unable to visit the cliff location where the DC-4 initially hit. Study of the wreckage that could be retrieved for examination suggested a nose up attitude and an unusually low airspeed
Airspeed
Airspeed is the speed of an aircraft relative to the air. Among the common conventions for qualifying airspeed are: indicated airspeed , calibrated airspeed , true airspeed , equivalent airspeed and density airspeed....
of the plane, implying that the plane was attempting a climb at the time of its crash. The reasons for this are not explicitly known, but several theories exist:
- An altimeterAltimeterAn altimeter is an instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, which is related to the term bathymetry, the measurement of depth underwater.-Pressure altimeter:...
indicating an inaccurate altitudeAltitudeAltitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context...
, leading the pilot to believe he was higher than he actually was; - Mountain obscuration by clouds, preventing visual sighting of the mountain peak before it was too late to react to prevent the crash;
- TurbulenceTurbulenceIn fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a flow regime characterized by chaotic and stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid variation of pressure and velocity in space and time...
, specifically downdrafts, around Medicine Bow peak, pushing Flight 409 into the mountain.
Possible incapacitation of crew by carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide , also called carbonous oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly lighter than air. It is highly toxic to humans and animals in higher quantities, although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities, and is thought to have some normal...
emanating from a faulty cabin heater was speculated upon based on recovery crew observations that crew bodies appeared 'discolored.' This theory was never proven, and the CAB report specifically states that there was no evidence to support crew incapacitation.
After the investigation of the accessible wreckage was completed, United Airlines requested that the remaining debris be destroyed by the military. Attempts were made to accomplish this, but despite the use of explosives, artillery fire and —according to most sources— napalm
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
bombs dropped from aircraft, complete obliteration of the wreckage was not possible. One source, a 2007 book about the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, contradicts the assertion that military jets bombed the site with napalm; instead, the book states that the cliff face was mined with explosives that were detonated in the spring of 1956, and the event was tightly controlled and not publicized. Regardless of the disposal method, small fragments of flight 409's airframe and parts of the engines still exist in the area surrounding the crash site.
Legacy
Prior to the loss of United 409, the deadliest scheduled airline accident in U.S. history was the June 1950 disappearance of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 over Lake MichiganLake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
, when 58 died. The 66 lives lost on Medicine Bow Peak remained the highest death toll on a scheduled airline flight in the U.S. for less than a year. In June 1956 two airliners, a Super Constellation and a DC-7, collided over the Grand Canyon
1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision
The 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision occurred on Saturday, June 30, 1956 at 10:30 AM Pacific Standard Time when a United Airlines passenger airliner struck a Trans World Airlines airliner over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, resulting in the crash of both planes and 128 fatalities...
, killing 128 people. Flight 409's crash, and other crashes and mid-air collisions in the United States that occurred over the next several years, convinced the U.S. Congress to improve airline safety
Air safety
Air safety is a term encompassing the theory, investigation and categorization of flight failures, and the prevention of such failures through regulation, education and training. It can also be applied in the context of campaigns that inform the public as to the safety of air travel.-United...
procedures, and to increase civil aviation radar coverage.
It is customary for many airlines to retire a flight number if the flight is involved in a fatal incident, but United currently uses the flight 409 designation today on Baltimore-Chicago (O'Hare)-Los Angeles route.
In August 2001 a stone with a bronze memorial plaque was placed just west of the Medicine Bow Libby Flats lookout off of Wyoming Highway 130
Wyoming Highway 130
Wyoming Highway 130 is known locally as the Snowy Range Road. It makes its way west from Laramie across the plains, and rises over the Medicine Bow Mountains. The road then turns north through the town of Saratoga, and ends at Interstate 80. The stretch of road over the mountains is a National...
(Snowy Range Road), in an area called the Miner's Cabin turnout. The location faces the mountain where the crash occurred.
In the film Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros...
, when Adam (Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
) and Barbra (Geena Davis
Geena Davis
Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis is an American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist...
) are in the office (representing the afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
), a voice on the PA systems announces the arrival of Flight 409 ("Flight 409 is arriving at Gate 3").
See also
- 1955 in aviation1955 in aviationThis is a list of aviation-related events from 1955:- Events :* The United Kingdoms first atomic bomber unit, the Royal Air Forces No. 138 Squadron, becomes operational, flying Vickers Valiants.-January:...
- 1955 in the United States1955 in the United States-January–March:* January 7 – Marian Anderson is the first African American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.* January 22 – The Pentagon announces a plan to develop ICBMs armed with nuclear weapons.* January 28 – The United States Congress authorizes...
- Aviation accidents and incidentsAviation accidents and incidentsAn aviation accident is defined in the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, in which a...
- List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
External links
- Newsreel footage of the crash scene from 1955 efootage.com (requires QuickTimeQuickTimeQuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
) - includes names of the deceased