New York

Pan American World Airways’ Flight 526A originated at San Juan and departed there at 1211, April 11, 1952, for New York, New York. The crew consisted of Captain J. C. Burn, First Officer W. T. Hutchins, Second Officer J. R. Laubach, Purser A. Perez, and Steward R. Torres. According to company records, the air-craft at the time of takeoff weighed 31,868 kilograms (70,256 pounds), which was within the allowable gross takeoff weight of 33,113 kilograms (73,000 pounds). The load was properly distributed with respect to the approved center of gravity limits of the aircraft. Prior to departure, the captain filed with Air Route Traffic Control an IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) flight plan to New York International Airport, New York, to cruise at an altitude of 8,000 feet, estimating the flight time as eight hours and three minutes. This flight plan was approved. The crew testified that the aircraft was taxied to the end of Runway No. 9, the pre-takeoff check made, and the takeoff run started. During the takeoff and the initial climb, the aircraft appeared to be sluggish but not to an extent to cause concern. At an altitude of approximately 250 feet with the gear up, the flaps were raised and power was reduced to climb power. Climbing at an indicated air speed of 155 miles per hour, the first officer noticed that the oil pressure of No. 3 engine was falling and the oil temperature increasing. This condition was immediately pointed out to the captain, who requested that the San Juan tower be advised that they were returning to the airport. Accordingly, at 1213 the flight advised the tower of its intentions, and the tower replied, “Roger 526A, cleared to land, Runway 9, wind east one eight, altimeter two nine nine five. I’ll notify your company.” The company was notified and upon request, emergency field equipment was alerted. Because the oil pressure of No. 3 engine continued to drop rapidly and the oil temperature correspondingly increased, the propeller of this engine was feathered and power was increased to rated power on the remaining three engines. By this time the aircraft’s altitude was approximately 350 feet. When power was increased, the No. 4 engine backfired several times; however, immediately following these backfires, the engine continued to run in a normal manner. A climbing turn was initiated to a westerly heading, and the captain said that for best climbing conditions he reduced the aircraft’s air speed during the turn to 145 miles per hour. This reduction in air speed was accomplished by using up elevator. Upon reaching an altitude of about 550 feet, No. 4 engine again backfired and ran rough. Manifold pressure was reduced on this engine to approximately 32-35 inches, and again the engine ran smoothly. Subsequent attempts to operate No. 4 engine at increased power were unsuccessful due to recurrent roughness. At 1217 the tower asked the flight to report its position and received this reply: “We are still quite a way out.” And at 1218, the tower advised the U. S. Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center at San Juan that the flight was in trouble and gave its position as seven miles, 300 degrees from the tower. The captain gradually reduced the air speed to 135 miles per hour, and at this time the heading of the aircraft was changed slightly to the right to maintain a course approximately parallel to the coast line. Because the aircraft was losing altitude, engines No. 1 and No. 2 were increased to takeoff power. The second officer was sent to the passenger compartment to advise the purser and steward that fuel was to be dumped, and all fuel dump valves were then opened. After the second officer returned to the cockpit, the flight advised the tower, at 1219, that it might have to ditch, and the captain instructed the second officer to alert the passengers. The second officer re-turned to the cabin, indicated that a ditching was imminent, took a forward seat in the cabin and fastened his safety belt. At 1220, an Air Force C-47 flying in the vicinity notified the San Juan tower that a DC-4 seemed to be ditching and accordingly was advised to circle the area. Flight 526A continued to settle, and the throttles of engines Nos. 1 and 2 were advanced to their stops. With the air speed near 120 miles per hour, the flaps were lowered to five degrees. Shortly after this, a landing on the water was made. The landing gear and flaps were lowered, and the fuel dump valves closed. The second officer obtained a life raft, which he carried to the main cabin and launched through a forward emergency exit on the right side. The first officer, after an unsuccessful attempt to loosen another life raft, abandoned the aircraft through a cockpit window. The captain entered the cabin and assisted passengers in evacuating the aircraft through the main cabin door until he was swept overboard by the action of the sea against the door. The aircraft sank approximately three minutes after landing on the water. At the time of the accident the weather was: high broken clouds at 35,000 feet with lower scattered clouds at 3,000 feet, visibility 20 miles and wind from east-southeast, 16 miles per hour.

The flight 2501, was scheduled to operate between the terminal points of New York, N. Y., and Seattle, Wash, via intermediate points of Minneapolis, Minn., and Spokane, Wash. At approximately 1931 the flight departed from LaGuardia Airport for Minneapolis with a crew consisting of Robert C. Lind, captain, Verne F. Wolfe, first officer, and Bonnie A. Feldman, stewardess. On board were 55 passengers, 2, 500 gallons of fuel, 80 gallons of oil, and 490 pounds of express, which resulted in an aircraft weight of 71, 342 pounds for takeoff. This was 58 pounds below the maximum permissible takeoff weight, and the load was distributed so that the center of gravity was within approved limits. The flight plan filed with ARTC (Air Route Traffic Control) specified a cruising altitude of 6 000 feet to Minneapolis. An altitude of 4,000 feet had been originally requested because of forecast en route thunderstorms, but denied by ARTC because other traffic was assigned at that level. At 2149, when over Cleveland, Ohio, a cruising altitude of 4,000 feet was again requested by the flight and this time approved by ARTC. Forty minutes later the flight was requested by ARTC to descend to 3, 500 feet because there was an eastbound flight at 5,000 feet over Lake Michigan which was experiencing severe turbulence and difficulty in maintaining its assigned altitude. ARTC estimated that the two flights would pass each other in the vicinity of Battle Creek, Mich., and that the standard separation of 1,000 feet would not be sufficient because of the turbulence. At 2251, Flight 2501 reported that it was over Battle Creek at 3,500 feet, and that it would be over Milwaukee at 2337. When in the vicinity of Benton Harbor, at 2313, the flight requested a cruising altitude of 2,500 feet, however, no reason was given for the request. ARTC was unable to approve this altitude because of other traffic. Acknowledgement that ARTC could not approve descent to 2,500 feet was received at 2315, and this was the last communication received from the flight. At 2337, Northwest Radio at Milwaukee advised the company at LaGuardia and Minneapolis, and ARTC at Chicago, that the flight was ten minutes overdue since they had incorrectly copied the 2251 flight report as 2327. At 2345 Northwest Radio at Milwaukee transmitted to the flight instructions to circle the range station at Madison, Wis., if its radio transmitter was inoperative. During the same period, all CAA (Civil Aeronautics Administration) radio stations in the Chicago-Minneapolis area tried to contact the flight on all frequencies. At 2358, Chicago ARTC, at the request of Northwest Airlines, alerted air-sea rescue facilities in the area, which included the Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and the state police of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana. The missing aircraft was assumed to have been involved in an accident at 0530 since the fuel supply at that time would have been exhausted. An intensive search of the Lake Michigan area was commenced at daylight June 24. On the following day, at 1830, the United States Coast Guard cutter Woodbine found an oil slick, aircraft debris, and the aircraft log book in Lake Michigan approximately 18 miles north-northwest of Benton Harbor. At 0530, June 25, underwater search operations were conducted with divers and sonar equipment. Divers descended at the points where strong sonar contacts were made. At those locations, the lake bottom was 150 feet below the surface of the water and was covered by a layer of silt and mud estimated to be 30 to 40 feet deep. Visibility was less than eight inches. The possibility of locating anything was slight, and movement was severely restricted. In addition to diving operations, the entire area was dragged with grapnel but without results. After two days of operation, the Navy suspended their search because of the difficult conditions, and because nothing had been found which would indicate that the aircraft could be recovered. Since then, the Coast Guard and aircraft flying in that area have maintained a sea and air surveillance. The only parts of the aircraft that were recovered were those with sufficient buoyancy to float a fuel tank float, foam rubber cushions, arm rests, clothing, blankets, pillows, pieces of luggage, cabin lining, plywood flooring and other wooden parts. The cushions and arm rests, shredded from impact forces and cutting edges of the fuselage, indicated that the aircraft struck the water at high speed. A plywood oxygen bottle support bracket, which had been installed in the forward left side of the fuselage, showed that the inertia forces acted in a forward, downward, and to the left direction. There was no sign of fire found on any parts recovered. All 58 occupants have been killed.

Enroute from New York to Raleigh, the crew contacted ATC and requested to divert to the nearest airport after the right engine lost power. The crew was rerouted to Harrington. On final approach, the aircraft was not properly aligned with the runway centreline and the captain decided to go around. The aircraft flew over the airport at low height and then hit tree tops before crashing in a wooded area. Two crew members were injured while the third occupant was killed.

The crew was performing a positioning flight to Wilmington-New Castle Airport to pick up passengers. On approach, the crew was informed by ATC that weather conditions were poor and that it should be better to divert to Philadelphia. The pilot attempted to land on runway 14 but after touchdown, he realized his mistake and elected to go around. It was too late, the aircraft overran, went through the perimeter fence, crossed a road where it hit two cars and continued for about 650 feet before coming to rest in flames. While all eight crew members escaped unhurt, the aircraft was destroyed.

The crew departed Bedford on a routine flight to New York-La Guardia Airport. While approaching New York, weather conditions worsened and the visibility was poor due to fog. Despite the fact that the crew was advised by ATC to modify his route, the captain continued over New York at a too low altitude when the aircraft hit the 79th Floor of the Empire State Building. A fire erupted and the aircraft disintegrated in the building, killing all three crew members and 11 people in the building. 25 other people were injured and lots of debris fell onto the 34th Street. The aircraft was christened 'Old John Feather Merchant'.

Take-off was started on Runway 33 and the aircraft became airborne after traveling approximately 1,000 feet. Upon gaining an altitude of 10 or 15 feet the captain ordered "gear up" and the copilot complied. A few seconds later, when the gear was up, or nearly up, the captain sensed a power interruption with the aircraft yawing to the left. Concurrently he called out "Single engine", throttled both engines, ordered the landing gear down and lowered the nose of the aircraft slightly. After a few seconds had elapsed the landing gear was fully down. At the time of throttling the engines the aircraft was approximately one-half way down the 5200-foot run way and was at an altitude of which the most plausible consensus is 30 feet. First contact with the ground was made on the same runway at a speed the pilot estimated as 100 miles per hour. The aircraft bounced to an estimated height of 15 or 20 feet and made contact again on the sodded ground a few feet to the right side of the same runway. From this point on it twice again left the ground for distances of 189 and 728 feet. Brakes were applied intermittently during the second, the third, and the final contact with the ground. At some undetermined point following initial contact the captain applied 20 degrees of flap. Decelerating rapidly after the final contact the aircraft continued to roll to the right of the runway, diverging slightly, for a total distance of about 535 feet. It passed beyond the end of the runway and when an estimated 60 or 70 feet from a large drainage ditch nearly at right angles to the course, the pilot attempted to groundloop to the right. However, the plane turned only about 20 degrees to the right and rolled into the ditch, left wheel first, at an estimated speed of 10 or 15 m.p.h., about 95 feet to the left of a boundary marker. It rolled down the sloping side turning parallel with the ditch and stopped abruptly at the concrete-lined bottom where it immediately burned.

The seaplane crashed on landing into the Jamaica Bay, killing five crew members.

On touchdown, the single engine aircraft went out of control and came to rest on the runway edge. The pilot was slightly injured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair. He was completing a mail flight from New York.

The twin engine airplane departed Mitchel AFB in Long Island on a local flight, in formation with two other similar aircrafts. While cruising at an altitude of 2,500 feet, the pilot of Bolo registered 37-576 attempted to pass below the two other airplanes when it collided with Bolo registered 37-583. Both aircraft entered a dive and crashed in 239th Street, Queens. All 12 crew members in both aircrafts were killed.

The twin engine airplane departed Mitchel AFB in Long Island on a local flight, in formation with two other similar aircrafts. While cruising at an altitude of 2,500 feet, the pilot attempted to pass below the two other airplanes when it collided with Bolo registered 37-583. Both aircraft entered a dive and crashed in 239th Street, Queens. All 12 crew members in both aircrafts were killed.