Missouri

After a night takeoff from Kansas City Airport, while on a mail flight, the airplane encountered difficulties to gain height when it stalled and crashed near the runway end. Both pilots were seriously injured and the aircraft was destroyed by a post crash fire.

While in cruising altitude, the twin engine aircraft went out of control, entered a dive and crashed in a near vertical attitude in a field located five miles south of Pleasant Hope. The aircraft was destroyed and all five occupants were killed.

Suffered a ground accident at Perryville Airport. No casualties.

On final approach to Whiteman AFB, the pilot-in-command decided to make a go-around for undetermined reason when the airplane stalled and crashed short of runway threshold. There were no casualties but the aircraft was written off.

While in cruising altitude, the crew informed ATC about a double engine failure and was cleared to divert to the nearest airport for an emergency landing. Unable to maintain a safe altitude, the pilot-in-command attempted to land in a field when the airplane struck trees and crashed. Four passengers and a pilot were killed while three other occupants were injured.

The crew was completing a local training flight at Kansas City-Mid-Continent Airport, Missouri, consisting of touch and go manoeuvres. During the takeoff roll, when the aircraft reached the speed of 146 knots, the pilot-in-command started the rotation when the airplane banked right to an angle of 25° then struck the runway surface. It went out of control, veered of runway and came to rest in flames. All four crew members were evacuated while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

AAXICO Airlines, Inc., Douglas DC-6A, N6579C, operating as AAXICO Flight No. 1416B, a regularly scheduled Civil Air Movement (CAN) cargo flight, crashed during an approach to a landing at Whiteman Air Force Base (AFB), Knob Noster, Missouri, at approximately 0601 c.s.t., on May 18, 1965. The crew of three, the only persons on board, escaped uninjured. The flight scheduled from Hill AFB, Ogden, Utah, to Offutt AFB, Omaha, Nebraska, with several scheduled stops at various Air Force Bases en route, departed Tinker AFB, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight plan at 0446 c.s.t., for Whiteman AFB. Shortly after departure the flight canceled IFR and continued in accordance with Visual Flight Rules (VFR). The flight approached Whiteman AFB from the south and was cleared for a straight-in visual approach to runway 36. At this time a line of thunderstorms was located to the west of the field, portions of which were moving across the approach end of the runway obstructing the crew's sighting of the base and runway. The flight continued the approach, encountering heavy rain which reduced visibility to the point that visual contact with the ground was lost. The aircraft struck the trees 4,204 feet short of the runway threshold and 740 feet to the right of the extended runway center-line while on a magnetic heading of 020 degrees. The aircraft continued to the ground, shearing the landing gear, the No. 4 engine and right outer wing panel, and slid approximately 1,200 feet on the bottom fuselage surface. Ground impact ruptured the right wing fuel tanks spilling fuel along the wreckage path which resulted in a ground fire of short duration. The left inboard tanks ruptured causing a fire which destroyed the fuselage interior.

On the night of May 22, 1962, a Continental Air Lines Boeing 707-124, N70775, operating as Flight 11 en route from O’Hare Airport, Chicago, Illinois, to Kansas City, Missouri, was flying via Jet Route 26V at an altitude of 39,000 feet. A few minutes after Flight 11 had made a northerly deviation from course to circumnavigate a thunderstorm, in the vicinity of Centerville, Iowa, the radar image of the aircraft disappeared from the scope of the Waverly, Iowa, Flight Following Service. At approximately 2117 an explosion occurred in the right rear lavatory resulting in separation of the tail section from the fuselage. The aircraft broke up and the main part of the fuselage struck the ground about 6 miles north-northwest of Unionville, Missouri. All 37 passengers and crew of 8 sustained fatal injuries. The aircraft was totally destroyed.

Shortly after takeoff from Richards-Gebaur AFB, while climbing, the crew declared an emergency and informed ground about an engine failure. The pilot obtained the permission to return for an emergency landing when the airplane went out of control and crashed in Belton, about 2 miles southeast of the airfield. The airplane was destroyed and all seven crew members were killed.

Flight 476 of August 4 was a scheduled operation between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and La Guardia Field, New York, with several intermediate stops including Joplin, Springfield, and St. Louis, Missouri. The flight departed Tulsa at 1006 (one minute behind schedule) with Captain Hugh C. Barren, First Officer William G. Gates, and Stewardess Thelma R. Ballard as crew. En route stops were made at Joplin and Springfield, and no discrepancies were reported or noted at either point. However, a traffic delay in the Joplin area resulted in the flight arriving and departing Springfield 21 minutes behind schedule. Two of the eight passengers deplaned at Springfield, 21 passengers boarded the flight there. Gross weight of the aircraft at takeoff was 38,663 pounds, 2,302 pounds under that allowable, and the center of gravity was located within prescribed limits. Flight 476 departed Springfield VFR for St. Louis, its next scheduled stop, at 1153 via Victor Airway 14 to cruise at 7,000 feet. It was off the ground at 1156. Twenty-one minutes later (1217) the crew initiated a general call asking, "Does anyone read 476?" Springfield company radio acknowledged but received no reply. Two other American Airlines flights, one cruising in the vicinity of Springfield at 7,000 feet, the other 30 miles north-northeast of St. Louis, heard a transmission from Flight 476 that No. 2 engine was on fire. This message was also heard by American's ground station at St. Louis. Three minutes later the American flight in the Springfield area intercepted the following message, "Springfield, are you reading 476? We have bad engine fire." This was the last message heard from the flight. All transmissions were on company frequency. During this interval numerous witnesses on the ground back along the flight path saw the aircraft with smoke and flame coming from the right engine. The aircraft was also tracked by a military radar installation near Springfield until it disappeared from the scope in the vicinity of Fort Leonard Wood. At approximately 1222 the operations officer on duty at Forney Field, Fort Leonard Wood, received a radio message from an Army pilot flying nearby that a two-engine aircraft with a fire in the right engine was on final approach to runway 14. The tower operator at Forney Field saw the approaching aircraft and gave it clearance to land. Before the operations officer could alert the crash crew another call from the Army pilot informed him that the airplane had crashed short of the runway. The time was 1223. Army personnel with portable fire-fighting equipment reached the wreckage on foot. There were no survivors. Heavy fire-fighting equipment and ambulances could not reach the scene until the Army engineers had bulldozed a road through the densely wooded area in which the crash occurred.